I glanced up to the mantel focused on the gilded box I kept in my study. I hadn’t looked inside that box for almost two hundred years. I didn’t want to see if the lock of hair had lost its luster yet. I didn’t want to know if the smell of Highland heather had finally dissipated. I closed my eyes and imagined the red-haired lass that sang pretty songs and had skin softer than silk running across the fields. She’d been mine for three summers but I’d live with her betrayal forever.
Both of them.
“I don’t think you’ve moved from the last time I saw you brother.”
I glanced up from my seat to see my younger brother, a more cavalier version of myself saunter into my study. He lounged on the sofa I placed Jane and my hand strained around the crystal highball glass. I put down my drink fearful I might break it now that he’d interrupted my peace.
“Get off my sofa.” I kicked his leg growling and impatient for him to leave. He returned last summer enrolling in the University’s creative writing program for…fun. He’d been using a few of Lord Bryon’s old journals he stole to fake his way through poetry and I was positive I read a few iambic pentameters with Shakespeare’s handiwork. He never could do anything on his own, I even felt bad for the Soho couple he compelled to let him live with them. However, I didn’t feel bad enough to invite him into my house.
He cocked his head and sniffed the air.
“Human. Young. What were you up to last night, you sly devil?” Dorian had a way of taunting me past my limits. He wanted to weasel his way into my business and then shit all over it. It was one reason why I forbad him from having anything to do with my club. It was my own guilty pleasure, but since my ennui had settled in a century earlier, I wasn’t even attending regularly. He was reckless and destructive. I had to hide far too many bodies whenever he came out to play. Dorian was an ill-trained puppy, too eager and uncontrolled with his blood lust. I hated that he smelled out Jane. His curiosity would only be more trouble than it was worth.
“I wasn’t up to anything. You, however, I’m sure reveled long into the night.” I pretended to scan documents for the transfer of an art piece I was loaning to the Guggenheim.
Dorian ignored me and lounged on my sofa.
“I was tame compared to years past. I did however find a party next door that was interesting.”
“Invite yourself in did you?” That old wives’ tale was true. Vampires had to be invited in thanks to a witch’s curse that wasn’t removable.
Dorian chuckled.
“I didn’t really have to do anything. My host was the sibling to the pretty girl I met outside.”
I rolled my eyes knowing my brother would find a loop hole anywhere if one existed.
“I assume you fed.”
I kept a mini fridge under my desk supplied with bags of blood if needed.
“I ravished her properly and then left her in good company. She’ll wake with nothing more than a headache and another delightful ache between her thighs.” He chuckled. “I promise, brother.” Dorian was cruel when it suited him.
“I suppose that’s better than a blood bath.” I remarked dryly thinking of the last massacre I had to cover up with a fire.
“Relax. I was with Leo and Sara.”
Those two were a bonded pair who swung wide and far in their sexual deviance. They had no problem with group endeavors which unfortunately got them into trouble when things got out of control. Leo had once been a Bavarian prince disinherited by his family. He found comfort in Sara’s arms, a French courtesan turned by her French lover during the whole Mary, Queen of Scots debacle.
“Then I suppose this is a gentle reminder of what will happen when you feed out of control.” I smiled tightly and got up from my desk shuffling the documents.
“I suppose now isn’t a good time to tell you I’m moving back in, eh?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.” I mumbled more to myself than anyone else. If I didn’t let Dorian move in I’d be forced to have people watch him wherever he went, again This was the easiest course of controlling him.
“Good. It’s settled. I’ve decided to pursue my art history degree this time. Plus there’s nothing better than an ample supply of sorority sisters and their visiting boyfriends. Last semester was so much fun, but the English Lit department is a dry drag.”
“I hesitate to ask.”
“I saw this delightful girl walking from the subway to the campus. So I followed her.”
I looked up from my reading cocking a brow at him. “Humans consider that stalking.”
Dorian chuffed and continued with his story waving his hand in the air nonchalantly.
“Stalking, whatever. I was merely scoping out my next appetizer when I realized she’d make a much better blood slut.”
“Dorian.” I growled. Blood sluts were partners who let us feed on them willingly in exchange for pleasure. It wasn’t a terrible thing or even taboo with our kind. My club catered to those needs, but it didn’t mean I was a full supporter. I knew Dorian had an agenda, the question was what and why.
He rolled his eyes mocking me. “Sebastián.”
“You can’t bring her to the club.”
“Maybe I just want to bring her here and lock her up in the basement like a doll taking her out to play when I feel like it.”
I pushed the image out of my head. My brother enjoyed
