Page 66 of Bloody Temptations

“I’m sorry, Finn. That must be shocking news. And unfortunately, we have a few more shocks to weather before I’m through, so please bear with me,” Matteus says gently when I’m done wiping my bloodied mouth with the back of myhand. “You see, my maker… he was the very worst of our kind; he was the kind of vampire for which the laws that govern our kind were written. Christoff—if your maker was the right Christoff, and I do not have any doubts that he was—was cut from the same cloth. They were exceptionally good friends. That was, theywere, until Christoff had a change of heart about his misdeeds. That was about a century ago, and he left Ulydessia to travel the world. I’ve seen him in the years since, and I’d believed him a new vampire. In the end, it seems, I overestimated how much he changed.”

I don’t know what to say. My mouth hangs open, I’m not even sure I’m blinking. Only the blood I just drank surging through my veins is keeping me upright.

Matteus clears his throat. “I can see that you are overwhelmed, and understandably so. So I will leave the matter for now. Just know that, should you wish, I can answer any questions you have in regards to Christoff.”

Nodding gingerly, I pick at the label on the bottle with my thumbnail. “How do you know? How do you know you have the right guy?”

“Well…” Matteus tips his head from side to side, no doubt considering how much to tell me. “To begin, I keep track of all my maker’s former acquaintances. It’s for the best. Unfortunately, whilst I knew that Christoff was in the Whisper Woods, I missed the news of your change. Usually, I would have heard about such an unusual occurrence, and interceded. But there were other matters which distracted me at the time.”

He would have interceded? What does that even mean? I wouldn’t have been all alone? The ground opens up below me, and everything goes dark, my vision tunneling into blackness.

“Butwhy?” I don’t mean to ask. I’m not even sure what it means.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Matteus’s voice, once again with a thread of confident steel running through it, puts an end to my spiral. “I know what it’s like to be let down by your maker, and need some help. If someone hadn’t come to my aid when I needed it, I wouldn’t be here to provide it to you. In that vein… I have more to say, if you are okay to continue?”

“Yeah, okay.” I’m really probably not, but at this point it seems silly to stop. Might as well just keep riding the roller coaster. Who knows where we’ll end up.

Matteus inclines his head regally. “As I said, I had my daytime assistant look into your employment history as part of your membership application.”

Right, so we’re back to that. I completely forgot that’s where all of this started.

“Dylan followed up with not only your bosses at ORA but also, your former position. The managers at the roadside assistance centre have nothing but wonderful things to say about you. The management at McArthur and Sons had less pleasant remarks.” He pauses, a sour look on his face.

“That is until Dylan, my assistant, received a call. You made quite the impression on someone there. They were unwilling to leave their name as they didn’t want to risk their own employment, but they overheard your former manager talking to Dylan. Your leaving had never sat right with them, so they decided to set things right. The caller explained how you’d been let go. From there Dylan dug a little further and found out what happened with your apartment too. You really have had quite a rough few months haven’t you?”

I nod, tears burning my eyes, not trusting myself to talk. This roller coaster is starting to feel like a mistake.

“I don’t want this to drag on, Finn, and I don’t want to overstep the bounds of our new friendship. Finn, I wish to make you an offer.”

“I… I don’t understand.”

My head is throbbing and the urge to bolt and go find Kai and plead for his forgiveness is strong—almost overpoweringly so—but I know I should at least hear Matteus out. Plus, I’m not in any state to see Kai now. I don’t want him to forgive me just because I’m pathetic. Although… if it works?

“Well, to begin with, we have services through the club to assist new vampires. Access to therapists and even group sessions for vampires who were turned under less than positive circumstances.” He laughs when I grimace. “I know, but it works. But more than that. I would like to offer my own mentorship to you.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you should have had it in the first place," he says simply, with a casual shrug of his shoulder. “But I must confess, I’m not being entirely altruistic. In a rather serendipitous turn of events, I find myself in need of a night assistant, Finn. Dylan is only able to work so many hours in a day and with your experience you are more than qualified for the position.”

“Wait, I got drunk, caused a scene in your super exclusive club, had a public and messy break up with the man who was apparently my boyfriend but I was too dumb to realise, and you want to give me a job? Are you high?”

Thank the Gods Matteus laughs at my outburst, and doesn’t kick me out like he really probably should. “Not in the last forty years or so, no. But there are conditions. Firstly, you will be subject to a probationary period of three months. It’s standard. Less standard, I would insist that you get support from a therapist to help process themeans of your transition. If you are unable to pay, we can cover it as part of your employment.”

I shake my head, mouth flapping while I try to formulate an answer.

“Can I think about it?”

“Of course you can, I understand I have thrown a lot your way this evening.” Matteus’s smile deepens, and he relaxes into his chair a little, taking a sip of his drink. “Now, why don’t you tell me everything about you and young Kai. I’m rather intrigued by it all, perhaps I can be of assistance there too.”

***

My family has never been particularly observant of the Gods, but as I unlock my front door and stumble into my apartment, after the longest and second most eventful twenty-four hours of my life, I think I should probably go to a temple and light some incense or something.

I don’t bother to turn on any lights. I just stagger to the couch in the pitch dark and collapse on the cushions on my belly. Once I’ve dug the charging cable out from under the seat and plugged my phone in, I roll over onto my back. The phone is too dead to turn on just yet, which gives me a chance to think about everything.

For the fifty-billionth time since I woke up this evening.

How I managed to turn my monumental cock up into a job offer and accidentally finding my maker, I’m not entirely sure—hence the trip to a temple—but it’s real. I may not be in any way ready to even touch the Christoff situation right now, but Matteus emailed me the job contract before I left, after the longest and strangest conversation I’ve had in a long time. Matteus wasright. Beings are nosey gossips—and he’s no exception. I think he really got a kick outof hearing me spill my metaphorical guts and giving me all his many,manydecades of wisdom and advice about everything even remotely related to what I was saying.

---