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Vidar watched Charlie as she talked to Jenni. She had handed in her resignation the Monday after they had their talk and now, Thursday evening, they were talking at the bar. He was happy Jenni didn’t harbour any hard feelings towards Charlie. Then, she had probably seen it coming when she learned that Charlie and he had imprinted. Caine walked into the bar and came over to him. They greeted each other with a grunt and a nod.
“She’s handling it better than I would have guessed,” Caine told Vidar as he also watched. Charlie.
“She is stronger than she looks. She just doesn’t like when things get thrown at her without warning.” Charlie looked over towards them and looked surprised to see Caine, but then she smiled and waved. Caine nodded at her. Charlie ended her conversation and walked up to Vidar. He smiled and pulled her to him. It had become a habit to smile when she was around. Vidar knew he had smiled more over the last month than he had done the last couple of hundred years. She had changed his life in so many ways.
“Caine, it’s always nice to see you. Are you joining the Thursday club?” she asked.
“Charlie. No,” Caine said in his usual short way.
“Oh.” Vidar knew she understood. Caine was here because Vidar didn’t trust the members of his clan. The thought still stung. He was not naïve, he knew how the world worked. People screwed each other over. He was fine with it. In fact, he usually was the one screwing people over. But it was supposed to be different with the members of a clan. You were more than family, you shared a sacred bond. To think that one of the five people he had trusted had betrayed him was a hard pill to swallow. One or more members of his clan had wanted to hurt Charlie. She was his, the fates had ordained it. Even worse, she was their maiden. They had a sworn duty to protect her. Even in the clan, they stole each others‘ business, they made a sport out of outdoing each other. But this, this was beyond that. Vidar wanted to believe he could trust Adisa and Nasir. They were his oldest friends. But he couldn’t take the chance, not when the thing he was gambling about was Charlie’s life. At this moment, there were two people he trusted, Charlie and Caine. Caine was there to keep their backs safe. Vidar would keep an eye on the members of the Thursday club.
“Charlie, Vidar,” Henry happily greeted them as he and Millard came walking, “Caine, nice to
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see you again,” he added when he noticed Vidar’s second in command. Caine grunted and
bent his head.
“Henry, hi. Thank you for the wonderful food you sent over the other day,” Charlie said. Henry smiled.
“It was my pleasure. Did everything go as planned?”
“Oh yes,
it has gone fantastically smooth. I have already unpacked, and it’s like everything just fit,” she happily told him. Millard had joined the group.
“Vidar, Charlie, Caine,” Millard greeted them. When he greeted Caine, his demeanour changed, and it looked like he was smelling something unpleasant. Vidar had to stop himself from wiping that look from Millard’s face. Charlie saw it as well, and she moved away from
Vidar and up to Caine.
“Caine, I need to empty my locker out. Could you join me?” she asked. Caine looked surprised, but then he nodded. As Charlie turned around to walk to the staff room, Vidar saw
her give Millard a look that would have scared the most fearsome beast. In true form, Millard
flinched. It made Henry chuckle.
“She has taken your man under her wing,” Henry pointed out. Vidar nodded.
“She appreciates him watching over her,” Vidar told the other two.
“Doesn’t she know what he is?” Millard asked. Rage bubbled close under Vidar’s surface.
“That he is my second in command or that he is the most loyal of all my friends?” he asked.
“That he is sullied,” Millard clarified. Henry swore under his breath and took a step between the two other vampires, looking Vidar straight in the eyes.
“Not here, my friend. Too many humans,” Henry told Vidar. Vidar stared at Henry for a long time, trying to get his emotions in check. He heard Jenni calling for Charlie, and a moment later, Vidar felt Charlie’s hands close around one of his. His hands were balled up in tight fists, but as he scented her, felt her touch and her b*dy heat as she pressed herself to his side, he started to relax. He nodded without breaking eye contact with Henry and then looked
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down at Charlie. His mouth smiled on its own.
“Are you okay?” she whispered. He nodded. She looked worried but didn’t press him. She just let him put his arm around her. He turned to walk them to the back room. As he did he met Caine’s eyes. Vidar could see that Caine knew what would have happened. Vidar wished he hadn’t let Henry stop him. As they walked into the back room, Charlie pulled him into a corner. “What happened?” she demanded to know.
“Millard said something he shouldn’t have said,” he told her.
“Vidar, you looked like you were about to go rabid. What ever happened, it was not Millard’s usual dickery. You can usually ignore that,” she said.
“He called Caine sullied,” he told her. Vidar expected her to get mad, but she just looked confused. He realised she didn’t understand the meaning of it. “Some vampires use that word for turned vampires as they see them as having tainted blood,” he explained. As she
understood the meaning, Charlie looked furious and she would have walked over to Millard if
Vidar hadn’t taken a hold of her. “Don’t. He’s not worth it.”
“He is a f**king asshole and I’m going to let him know!” she shouted, apparently done with being discreet.
“Who is?” Adisa asked as he entered the room.
“Millard,” Charlie almost growled.
“Ah, what have the young man done this time?” Nasir asked as he joined them.
“He disrespected Caine,” Vidar said, still holding Charlie to him to stop her from running over to Millard, doing god only know what. She was more likely to hurt herself than Millard.
“Millard disrespected Caine?” Jun asked. He must have heard bits of their conversation as he was walking to the back room.
“He called him… Something disgusting,” Charlie told him. Vidar could tell she couldn’t take
the word in her mouth now when she knew what it meant. Jun’s brows knitted, and he strolled over to Millard and slapped him across his strolled over to Millard and slapped him across his face. It was a hard slap that echoed in the
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room.
“No matter what you think of him, Caine is the maiden’s shadow, and she is attached to him.
He is above most vampires,” Jun told Millard. He then turned towards Charlie and bowed. “Are you satisfied or do you require a harsher punishment?” he asked her. Vidar felt how stunned Charlie had been as Jun slapped Millard, and she had stopped struggling against him.
“Oh, yes, for now. Thank you Jun,” she said. Her anger had clearly been replaced by surprise.
“It’s my honour and my duty to act as your hand when you are unable,” Jun said with another bow and then walked over to the other three vampires. Millard was rubbing his face, looking furious. Everyone was tense, wondering what the next move would be, and who would make it. Vidar’s instincts screamed at him to not trust Millard. They had included him in the clan because of his father. His father resided in Europe and had no desire to go to “the new world” as he still called it. His son, on the other hand, longed to make a name for himself and get
out from under his father’s shadow. Millard’s father had reached out to Vidar and his clan and
asked them to include his son. He was still young and needed guidance and protection. They
had agreed since they respected Millard’s father. Clearly, it had been a bad decision. Millard
had none of his father’s virtues, but they had all overlooked it on the count of him being so
young. But Vidar had a strong suspicion that if anyone would be behind the shooting, it would be him. What Vidar couldn’t figure out was why he would do it. Millard had coveted
Charlie from the moment he saw her. It made little sense that he tried to kill her. Vidar felt
Charlie move restlessly beside him. He felt an idea formulate in his mind. He usually spent hours perfecting his plans and talking them over with Caine and other of his men. But this time, he needed to be a little more reckless. It was a gamble, but the consequences if it didn’t
work were low. He smiled, a smile he knew was void of all joy. And he cleared his throat.
“I think it’s time for some drinks. I have something to discuss, so let’s hold off on the cards.
for a moment,” he told the others, and guided Charlie to the table. He made sure she sat in the chair between him and Jun. They called for a waitress and the room stayed silent until they all had their drinks and the waitress had left them.
“What is it you want to talk about?” Henry asked.
“Caine has found a lead on who tried to shoot Charlie,” Vidar started and felt all the attention in the room focus on him. “It was planned by a small cartel of humans operating
out of Central America.”