Staring at the creature hovering over his family, his body stiff from fear, a soft voice is heard right next to his ear.
"You have two choices my friend, die or be reborn."
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This is a book about how it all sta...
"Top floor," I instructed while I checked how many bullets I had left. From the corner of my eye I noticed how Marianne gave me a short nod and opened the door to step inside the darkness. She was a quick learner and I wondered what kind of job she'd had when she was human.
"Why does he need another warehouse, Clockie?" she asked. There was no bitterness, tiredness or agitation in her voice. She was just curious and excited to be outside, unlike me who was tired of every word Anthony spoke to me.
"He never told me," I answered her briefly as we walked up the stairs. The puzzled look she gave me panged my heart. We both thought me and Anthony were closer than that, but lately he avoided involving me in his business. "It has something to do with the elixir Lumiere made for you."
"Is he going to use it on others as well?" she asked as we entered the top floor and moved up to the office door. She placed herself at the side of it, having my back as I knocked on it.
"I'm not sure Sweetheart," I said with a tired voice, not really engaged in the conversation. "Maybe he'll sell it."
"And make his competitors stronger? He's not that dumb, is he?"
No one answered the door and I knocked on it once more before I kicked it open– and the wood turned into a mess on the floor. I stepped over the rubbish and walked into the empty room. "Anthony is far from dumb," I chuckled, "he's too smart for his own good."
The entire place was abandoned, the sparsely decorated rooms were covered in old dust. The ad stated it was for sale, but Anthony did not take risks. That's why he wanted us to check it out first. So we searched the rooms together, to look for anything out of the ordinary. But the place was empty, and no evidence of anyone living there whatsoever.
"Can I ask you a question?"
I peered at the blond girl, she looked completely different from when I had first met her in the alley. She was somebody now, she was Lumiere's girlfriend and part of our household. She was part of my family.
"Of course, you can ask me whatever you want," I said and turned to search through the overthrown desk. The place had clearly been a shoe factory.
"Why are you married to Luis when you're obviously in love with his brother?"
The question made my heart stop and my hands froze around the documents I held. "Because he made it clear from the start that it was not possible for him and me to be together."
"So you told him how you felt?"
"In a way," I said and thought back to my first weeks as a vampire. How he'd cared for me and how I in return had displayed my emotions to him. It would have been so much easier if we weren't forced to live together I thought with a smirk on my lips. And if he weren't my boss.
"And he rejected you," she said with a deep sigh, "I'm sorry love, I wish you could be happy like me and Lu-Lu."
"Luis makes me happy," I mumbled unconvincingly.
"Once maybe," Marianne said with a sad smile before she jumped up on a shelf and started to dangle her legs in the air. "But lately he only makes you miserable."
I decided to ignore her, it was easier than acknowledging my problems. Luis and I had an arrangement, right from the start it had been a business proposal — nothing else.
"We were never in love like you and Lu," I told her as I searched through the rest of the rooms with the girl on my heels. "It was arranged so that I would become more powerful."
The look she gave me was full of confusion, "why would he want you to be more powerful?"
"To help him gain power."
"So you're just a tool," she muttered as we walked down the stairs and back to where we came from. I opened the main entrance door and looked out into the street, it was calm and dark – just like I had hoped.
"We all are, sweetheart. They're vampire princes, they've lived for so long they've forgotten what it's like to be human," I told her and locked the door with the spare key I'd found in the desk. "Or what it's like to feel emotions."
"So teach him," she said and gave me a wink.
"He doesn't care about me like that, Marie, he cares about power. So does Luis." I sighed and pulled her closer to me as a group of rowdy men exited a pub down the street.
She giggled and placed her hand in mine, "it's cute how you think I need protection."
I rolled my eyes at her, "at least let me pretend to be your superior."
"Oh, darling, you will always be like a big brother, or father to me, you know that," she giggled and colored my cheek red with her lipstick.
"I know," I said and squeezed her hand. "Whatever happens, I will always have your back, Marie, I promise."
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