Page 5 of Ouch! My Vampire Doms Keep Biting Me
It isn’t perfect. But it might fool cameras, at the right angle.
I consider dumping my messenger bag, or asking to trade the woman’s backpack, but I can’t do it. Not this last thing of my mom’s.
“Will it work?” I ask.
She nods, and her boy gives me a thumb’s up.
“I will purchase your ticket for you,” she says. “Where are you going?”
“San Esteban.”
She nods and says, “Wait here.”
A long moment later, she and the boy return. She hands me a ticket, and I give her the money for it, plus extra.
“Thank you,” I say in Spanish, over and over again, my tears blurring my vision even more than her reading glasses. “Thank you.”
When I try to hand her more money, she shakes her head.
“I was in trouble once,” she says. “Someone helped me. Now I help you. Next, you help someone else.”
“I will,” I promise.
I leave the restroom and settle myself on a nearby bench to wait. Despite the outfit change and light disguise, I feel exposed. A careful viewing of camera footage would eliminate this disguise in a second. I went into the bathroom as myself and someone emerged who looks similar to me, but in different clothing…it isn’t foolproof in the slightest.
A new feeling of paranoia strikes me—what if Dale put a tag or tracker in my purse? I empty it out on the seat beside me, identifying every tiny piece of clutter. Then I feel along theinside to make sure he didn’t tape anything to the inner lining or pockets.
Nothing. Okay. He was probably just tracking my phone or my car. He wouldn’t have had much reason to monitor me before this. It’s not like I witnessed a murder before. At least, I never thought I had.
My poor mom. She loved him, I know she did. And he hurt her. For what? Probably money. Power. Dale’s an insecure asshole and the fact that people deferred to her instead of him probably grated on his nerves.
The bus’s engine starts, and a voice comes over the speaker, announcing the upcoming departure for San Esteban. I climb the narrow steps, along with several others, and find a seat by the window. I avoid looking at the other passengers, and luckily at this hour, nobody seems too interested in looking at me.
My new, traded coat is warm and smells faintly of lavender. I pull the hood up and lean my head against the bus window. My bag and purse are in my lap and pull my bruised arm over them, hugging them close like I wish I could hug my mom.
The city lights of Altera taunt me as they get fainter and fainter, and soon enough we’re rumbling along Interstate 5, my past ripping apart in the exhaust.
Xander
A low, feminine moan echoes from Will’s office. I didn’t realize he had already returned from hunting.
Straightening my collar, I stride down the hall. His door is cracked open, which means he wanted me to either hear the woman or smell her blood. Both, probably. Passive-aggressiveasshole. Will and I used to hunt together, but I’ve pulled back and let him select the women for our playtime and feedings. Now he rubs it in my face by always taking the first bite.
“That’s so hot,” the woman says. “You’re really a vampire.”
I clear my throat.
Will turns slowly around, blood on his lips. “What?”
3
Xander
Ignoring the woman and looking at Will, I say, “You didn’t tell me you’d already brought home groceries.”
The woman wrinkles her nose and mouths “Groceries?”
“Don’t worry, subbie, he’s rude to everyone,” Will says, patting her naked thigh. Twin punctures ooze blood at the base of her neck, another set above one of her pale pink nipples. “Get in here, Xander. I saved her legs for you.”
