Page 9 of Bound By Blood

Pointing her spoon at her friend, she asked, “Are you going to work?”

Lily’s face turned sympathetic. “I have to. My secretary quit without notice. I have to meet with the team to organize an ad to find a new hire.”

Carly didn’t envy that task. “Okay.” Good, Carly didn’t add. That’ll give her time to cope with everything that had happened. Lying to her best friend was hard enough.

The room grew quiet, and Lily sipped from her tea once more before traveling to the sink and placing it inside still half full. The sink was empty, so the mug clinked in it. The sink was always empty. Lily kept it clean, just like the rest of the house. Carly tried to keep her stuff picked up, but cleaning had never been her strong suit.

“I’ll see you later,” Lily said. She grabbed her purse from the couch in the living room and headed out the door, leaving Carly to the quiet house.

Carly sat back in her chair with a huff. She was supposed to be working today, but . . .

Her gaze snapped to her laptop left in the middle of the table from yesterday. She rubbed her bottom lip, cereal forgotten. She needed answers, and though the internet would have interesting things to say about vampires, she couldn’t resist.

Leaning, she snatched her laptop from the wood surface and opened it up quickly. The laptop’s screen spasmed to life. It took her no time to open a browser to her favorite search engine. Her finger hovered over the keyboard, unsure of what to type in.

Puckering her lips, she decided to start at the beginning. She typed in, ‘are vampires real?’

Carly sat there for hours. Lunch had come and gone, but she didn’t care. She spent the morning and half of the afternoon researching and writing down common legends that seemed to be spread across the sites she had found. Though, she had bypassed some of the sites that were flat-out ridiculous. There were some freaks out there who believed they were vampires and would drink blood, animal or human.

She even looked up Dracula because, why not? He was the only damn vampire she knew of, except for the hot asshole she met last night.

Stretching in her chair after her last search, she wondered if Gravesdale had more vampires. There had to be more. He couldn’t be the only one. Although, when she lived on the streets, she had never had her blood sucked. She had never been attacked by some guy in an alley in such a way. She had been attacked, but never like this.

Her knuckles cracking was the only sound when she leaned back forward, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “Gravesdale vampires,” she read out loud. The first thing that popped open, she clicked on. There were some legends in the area, dating back to when the town was founded, but there were no pictures. She scrolled down to look up their claimed abilities and frowned at a certain one.

“What the fuck is shadow magic?” she said to the screen. “They’re able to hide in the shadows?” That was what it said.

Wide-eyed, she looked around the room and noted every single shadow.

No. No, this sounded crazy. If shadow magic was real, what other magic was too? She refused to go down that line of thought. Her mind was already reeling from everything she’d learned today.

Why couldn’t she just drop this? Why couldn’t she walk away from the stranger that was burned into her mind? She gritted her teeth. Because he had attacked her ass, and it couldn’t go unanswered; that was why.

The internet was only going to get her so far though. She checked the time to the city archives for their hours. It was still open for a few more, so she called an Uber and headed to her room.

Opening her nightstand, she pulled out a knife. It was plain with a black hilt, but she had purchased it when she was homeless in order to protect herself. And she needed to protect herself now. If they could live in the shadows, any vampire could attack her.

If dark, tall, and handsome came after her again, she’d stab him in the balls. He was a vampire. That didn’t mean he didn’t have balls. Like hell was anyone biting her again without her permission – even if she did like it.

Once the Uber arrived, she pocketed the knife and headed out of the house. She locked it behind her and hopped into the Ube, where the man gave her a greeting that she ignored. She was in no mood for pleasantries.

After a moment, out of the corner of her eye, she saw him watching her in the review mirror with a frown on his face. “What are you staring at?” she asked.

“Ma’am,” he began slowly. “Do you need help?”

She scowled at him. “Excuse me?”

“Your neck.” He tapped at his own neck in emphasis. “Did someone do that to you?”

She grinned at him wickedly, deciding to fuck with him because she was so tired of people assuming. “I like it rough.”

He blushed and looked back to the road.

“Do you know what it’s like to ride that edge of pain and pleasure?” The thought thrilled her, and she leaned forward and said between the seats when he pulled up to the archive building, “I do.”

His blush only grew, so she opened the door and shot him an innocent grin. “Have a nice day.”

She giggled to herself as she made her way to the archive building’s front door. The building could use some help. It was made of a white-gray brick with white columns spaced evenly apart, all of it crumbling a little. The double door was made of wood, and she wrapped her hand around the gold handles and tugged.