Page 1 of Bloody Temptations

1

Finn

“You have a wonderfulnight too, sir.”

Pressing the button to hang up on the being screeching abuse down the phone doesn’t exactly have the satisfying effect I’m after, but tearing my headset off and throwing it helps take the edge off.

Just a little.

Unfortunately, even without the earpiece in, I can still hear the little bell indicating a call dropping into my queue. That little bell haunts my dreams. Or it would, if I still had them. It’s one of the few perks of being a vampire. You literally sleep like the dead.

The ringing of the bell gets louder and more frequent, the bar on my screen going from green to orange to red, showing that my call response time is spiralling out of control. Fuck.

It wasn’t meant to be this way,I think bitterly to myself as I pick up the headset and clip the earpiece into my ear.

“Osneau Roadside Assistance, how can I help you?” I’ve crossed over into the slightly too cheerful customer service voice, earning me a peek from Bedeer in the cubicle beside me. His brightly coloured eyes squint in a frown around the edge of our grey partition.

I only manage to give him a tight frown and shake of the head before the being on the end of the line starts talking. It’s definitely a being, no human is capable of that kind of rough growly edge.

“On the I54. Car stopped. Smoking now. Need help.” The being grunts out. My fingers dash across the keyboard to bring up their account details, thank the Gods. I don’t really have it in me to explain the astronomical “emergency” fees again tonight.

“Sure thing, sir. One of our roadside patrols will be with you in an hour to get you going again.” The being grunts and I manage to get them off the line significantly happier than my last three callers.

Six more emergency call outs, a record breaking four perverts, and a confused but lovely old lady who was trying to order something off the TV but kept coming through to us instead, and my shift is finally—finally—drawing to a close. Crossing my arms on my desk, I rest my forehead on top of them, letting the final minutes tick past in blissful darkness.

It’s only been a short shift—the type that’s long enough to truly suck the spirit out of you, but short enough they don’t have to pay you for a lunch break. Even though it’s early, not even midnight, I’m feeling crispy-fried and ready to crawl home and curl up on my couch. I might even splurge on a bottle of alcoholised blood on the way home and get really pathetic.

Fuck. It really, really wasn’t meant to be like this.

Before I came to Ulydessia, all the way from the beachside town of Twin Heads, just outside the Whisper Woods, I had it all planned out. I was going to move to Osneau—the capital city here in Ulydessia—and start my high flying new life.

I got myself a sweet job working in a swanky office as a personal assistant to an executive and a little place with fantastic views and ashort walk to an amazing little coffee shop. For six glorious months everything was going… fine.

Okay, maybe working as a personal assistant hadn’t cracked up to be everything I thought it would.

Maybe, even after all this time, I’m still not one-hundred percent certain what they did there or what my executive’s job was. And maybe the pay had been terrible after accounting for the long hours, unpaid overtime and shitty attitude of the bosses.

But it was a start.

My start.

The job had been my chance for something different, a way to start fresh, away from my dull little world in Twin Heads. But now it’s gone. All of it. Along with all my dreams and everything that went with them.

All because I thought it would be hot to get dicked down by a vampire. What an idiot.

“Someone will be with you within the hour. Have a wonderful night, ma’am. Happy to be of assistance.” Bedeer’s treacly voice washes over me along with the clacking of furious typing. There is a low, impressed whistle and then, “Would you look at that? It’s a thing of beauty!”

I lift my head just in time to see it—a completely empty call queue. And wouldn’t you know it? It's time to clock out.

If I still breathed, this would be the time I’d be sighing with relief. Instead, I race to sign out before a call drops in.

“You’re coming out with us tonight, Finny. I told the boys I was bringing you along. They’re excited to meet you. Bedeer smacks the felt covered wall between us with his usual exuberance.

By “us” he means his friends Jax, Lusce, Willan and Bedeer's girlfriend Jesminda—the group of beings he’s been trying to get me to hang out with since I started here six weeks ago.

“Hmm,” I hum, packing up my desk, getting it ready for Dotty, the human waiting for me to get out of her way, to start her shift. “Can’t. Busy.”

Bedeer snorts. “Doing what? You come here, you go home. What else have you got to do? Come on. We’re going to a vampire bar someone at Lusce and Willan’s work told us about. It’s gonna be sweet.”

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