Page 63 of Missing Piece
“I’ll take care of it,” he assured Ophelia, not sure if he even believed himself. She would probably see right through his words, but in that moment he didn’t care. Marcus was finishing up his usual “responsible vampirism” speech and then the others would start to clear out for the night covered head to toe or hide in the sectioned-off Members-Only areaof the club until the sun set. Then he could go check on Adam without too many eyes on him.
It was already excruciating enough on his psyche to have those closest to him know he was struggling with what was happening to him, he didn’t need the rest of them finding out. Any semblance of the respect they had for him would vanish overnight if they did.
“If you don’t, you know my dad will get involved.” Ophelia walked over to the double doors, peeking back out into the club. “They’re done out there, if you want to go check on Adam. Or you know, you can stay back here and try to pull your head out of your ass.”
“Very funny,” Vincent rolled his eyes. He followed her back out to the bar, frowning when he didn’t see Adam back at the table with the twins yet. Matoskah stood at the bar, his pale eyes meeting Vincent’s for a moment before turning his attention to Marcus, who was standing near the front of the room, staring out at someone who was reading the Help Wanted poster again.Interesting.
Ophelia followed their gaze and squinted as she pulled out her phone. “That kid looks familiar,” she said, her tone flirting with amusement. “Dad, what are you looking at?”
Marcus spun around, his mouth opening and closing without a word. He ran his fingers through his hair and his pallid cheeks flushed as much as they could given his state of starvation. “Nothing,” he said as he walked back towards the stairs.
“I’m gonna see if that guy wants to apply!” she announced, rushing to the front door. “Everyone get the fuck out before I open this door.”
“Ophelia, don’t—” Marcus began.
“I’m doing it!”
“Meet me in the back,” Matoskah said flatly, motioning for Vincent to follow him.
As Vincent followed Matoskah through the curtain to the Members-Only area, he looked between a very nervous Marcus, wringing his hands as he stared out the front windows, and a wildly grinning Ophelia as she slowly opened the door. The young man outside moved back from the window, his scarred face a mask of concern and anxiety.
Vincent kept his amusement to himself as he entered the backroom hallway, the thick black curtain shutting out the rest of the club and the overhead black lights making it feel as though they had moved into a completely different world.If she hires him to be Marcus’s next meal, that will be a mercy. He looks like he will get eaten alive in our world.
Chapter Twenty-Three - Adam
It didn’t matter how many bottles of water he drank, he could still taste the vomit on his tongue and the burn in his throat hours after losing his lunch while hugging the surprisingly clean porcelain of a nightclub toilet. He wasn’t expecting such a sudden and violent reaction while crammed between Luka and Matteo like the cream filling of a cursed Oreo in a room full of vampires, but then again, he wasn’t expecting Caleb Walsh to walk past the club and glance in as though he could sense Adam sitting in there.
He made a point of never thinking about the other people involved in his accident after he barely graduated high school, let alone speaking about it, but all it took was some bad liquor to make him run at the mouth and spill his inner shitstorm to Vincent. And like some sort of jinx, one of the people from the other car appeared. If anything, it served him right. He deserved to vomit as violently as he did.
It had been years and he never attempted to apologize for being an asshole—no, that was too light of a word. He was a bully. An unrepentant, unrelenting bully who made Caleb Walsh’s life a living hell for the mere crime of being on the road that day, and the poor kid never even knew why.
He was grateful when Vincent joined them in the backroomthat he had only asked Adam if he was feeling better and left it at that. The vampire could probably sense he was uneasy about the whole thing. Maybe he was just too busy with the constant onslaught of other vampires coming to speak with him.
That had been a surprise. Despite each one of them appearing nervous around Vincent at first, they settled into a strange ritual where they would start by entering the room slowly, almost apologetically. Adam finally understood what Vincent had meant that night on the porch by not wanting his reputation tarnished if Adam ran his mouth on any of the “kindness” he had been shown. Everyone except for Marcus, Tariq, and Ophelia looked like they were waiting for a bomb to go off in his presence.
Adam knew the feeling well, being on the receiving end of that trepidation, and Vincent played into it well. It wasn’t until they devolved into rapidly speaking in different languages to each other that some semblance of caring or at least interest lit up Vincent’s face.
How many languages did he know? He knew for sure there was a conversation in French with the guy in a sequin eyepatch, Spanish with a bottle blonde tan young man, and Korean with the guy dressed in scrubs that both Tariq and Vincent called “Jae-Jae”. The others…well, he wasn’t well-traveled or all that interested in learning back when he was in school, so he could barely feign a guess. The first guy Vincent walked back with immediately devolved into a strangely tense discussion in a language he had never heard in his life, but Adam desperately wanted to follow the conversation because that one they called “Mattie” wore a sheriff’s office badge.
It would have been a great time to ask the guy if Adam had an active warrant, but unlike the other conversations, it never devolved into something more pleasant and casual. The whole thing remained tense and made Adam want to lay down on the curved couch of the backroom and sleep until they could go back to the farmhouse. Though that was probably just the strain of puking his guts up.
Even as the night wore on, he found himself dozing in and out of verbal and non-verbal conversations, occasionally interrupted by Tariq or Ophelia checking on them. They both had a mischievous air about them when they did, like they were hoping to walk in on something more interesting than business talk and a napping human. Adam was a depraved son-of-a-bitch, but he wasn’t some kind of exhibitionist. Stripping down to his birthday suit and jumping Vincent’s bones in front of the brothers did not sound appealing at all.
Though later…
He pressed his palms against his eyes, ignoring the itching in his back from the stitches, trying to push the thought away. He was letting his dick do the thinking again, and that pleasant fluttering in his gut whenever he met Vincent’s gaze wasn’t helping the situation. One blowjob and a good fuck shouldn’t have made him feel this way, especially about a guy who could snap his neck with the same amount of effort it took to open a jar of pickles.
It had to be the lack of pills. He was comfortably numb before, completely disconnected from those who shared his companionship and his bed. Well…comfortably wasn’t the right word, but it worked for him. No one ever got close enough to hurt him, and he never had as much as a passing attachment to any of those people, at least that he could remember. A lot of it was a blur.
“I need a drink,” Adam said as he reached for the crutch leaning against the couch.
Vincent ran his fingers through Adam’s hair, smiling at him. “Make sure you get a bottle of water as well. Have it put on my tab,” he said.
“No chaperone?” Adam asked as he pulled himself up, Vincent bracing his lower back as he did. That light, barely there touch made his stomach knot again.Yeah, I definitely need that drink.
“Are you planning on running away?” Vincent asked with a grin.
“Not today.” Adam bit down on his lower lip, trying not to let a smile form on his face as well. He shouldn’t like this fucked up banter.
