Page 6 of Vampire Visions

“What do you taste like?” He tried asking in a different way. I understood the first time, but... what kind of question was that? I didn’t know what I tasted like.

“I always forget how fucking weird you are.” York chuckled under his breath.

“Seriously. She’s going to need to feed when she wakes up. She can feed from me, but then she’ll basically be high. She’s gonna need to feed from someone else to sober up. Don’t you guys know how vampire blood works?” Novak threw his hands up as he looked pointedly at York and me.

“Uhm, no. Why the fuck would I know that?” Annoyed, I just glared at him. It’s not like I've been running around drinking vampire blood to get my rocks off. The sight of blood normally made me nauseous, so why would I even think about ingesting it?

“For fuck’s sake.” York looked at Novak and shook his head. “She needs food, you idiot. She’ll probably need blood too, but Franklin keeps that stocked. Grim is saying she’s going to be hungry after using all the magic needed to heal herself the rest of the way.” York rolled his eyes at us.

“Oh.” Novak and I both say at the same time.

Grim looked to York, and the Druid just shrugged his shoulders. “They aren’t always the brightest crayons in the box, Reaper. Sometimes you gotta spell it out for them.”

“Hey! Fuck off. I was trying to be helpful,” Novak defended.

“Be helpful now, Vampire.” Jack angrily responded as they reached the bloody puddle we were all still standing in. “Can you compel?”

Novak responded without hesitation. “A human? Sure.”

“Then do it,” Jack commanded. “We need to know who sent him, how he got in the barrier, and where he got the sleeping potions from. Something about this attack isn’t adding up.”

Novak blanked his facial expression and moved in front of Taylor. When his glittering, golden orbs latched onto Taylor’s bloodshot eyes, you could see the change immediately. Taylor’s face went slack. He stopped fighting against Briggs’ hold. His eyelids grew heavy with what I’d almost call lust.

“Taylor,” Novak purred, “How did you get here?”

Taylor smiled shyly at him. “I drove.”

Novak nodded his head gently. “How did you pass the barrier around the property?” His voice stayed at a soft, hypnotizing volume.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Taylor confessed, bewitched under Novak’s full attention.

The vampire kept pushing for answers. “Where did you get the sleeping potions from?”

Taylor paused, sort of like he was embarrassed by his answer. “A beautiful woman gave them to me.”

“Tell me about her?” Novak coerced with a slight tilt to his head.

“She was tall, with dark hair and blue-gray eyes. Her eyes were so pretty.” I scrubbed my hand over my face, knowing exactly who he was talking about.

Novak’s only reaction was a twitch of his hand. His face remained impassive. “What did she say to you?”

Taylor sighed wistfully. “She said that if I killed Sloane, then she’d give me everything I wanted. She’d come back to me. She told me to call her when I did what she asked.”

“What did she ask you to do?” Novak balled his hands up, then opened them again, flexing his fingers.

Taylor wasn’t even trying to fight the compulsion. “She asked me to throw the potions on the dogs and shoot Sloane in the head with the special bullets she gave me. I did what she asked, but she didn’t tell me there would be other people here with her.”

“I need you to call her, Taylor. Can you do that for me?” Novak rubbed his cheek affectionately, and Taylor leaned into his touch. “Can you call her?” He asked sweetly.

“Whatever you want,” Taylor agreed.

“Tell her the job is done. Okay? Tell her you did what she asked, but don’t tell her about us.” Novak reached into Taylor’s pocket and pulled his cell phone out, sliding it into the man's hand. Taylor hesitated for only a second before scrolling through his contacts and pressing the name Kadence. Novak cut his eyes to me, and I nodded my head.

“Yeah, I saw that.” I thought to him.

Novak met Taylor's eyes again. He’d only dropped his hold over the asshole’s mind for a few seconds, and Taylor didn’t seem to notice. If anything, it was like he craved more of Novak’s attention.

“Taylor, put it on speaker phone, please.” Novak continued to use a seductive voice while talking to Taylor. “Ask her about her plans. See if you can help her with anything else.”