The Feeder Read online

  Down in one of the booths a young woman sat between two vampires, completely oblivious to the danger she was in. She was talking rapidly, waving her arms around in the air as she did. Stupid drunk human. The vampire on her left was looking hungrily down at her neck, licking his lips as he inched closer. The one on the right wasn’t looking at the small human at all. No, he was glaring at the other vampire, rage pouring off him in waves. That was one guy that did not want to share.

  Within moments of the first vampire opening his mouth and his fangs descending the other guy struck, grabbing the woman by the neck he dragged her out of the booth away from the other vampire, shoving her behind him. A roar left the other vampire’s throat as his victim was taken away from him.

  Faced with two angry vampires, and being ridiculously drunk, the woman began to scream and lash out at everyone within reach. It didn’t help matters that her screams caused both vampires to turn towards her with their fangs on full display and their eyes pits of darkness. “Vampires!” she began screeching. “Somebody help!”

  I could see the three vampires that Gideon liked to call security working their way towards the scene. That wasn't a name I would use for them. Within the last hours alone this was the eighth fight I had seen breakout, and every time they failed to get there in time to stop blood from being spilled. Nothing too major had happened so far, but the two guys fighting now seemed to have way less control than the rest.

  Fists were swinging left, right, and centre, neither of them even bothering to care where they aimed their hits. The fight was truly out of control. A small group nearby quickly joined in the fight, and within moments, almost half the floor was covered by brawling men, both vampire and human alike.

  Just before Gideon’s security team got there the first waft of fresh blood hit the air, sending the vampire portion of the brawl into a frenzy. The majority of the vampires here were young and not able to control themselves around fresh blood. Hell, the scent in this place alone had to be having an effect on them.

  Deciding that I’d better do something quick before the entire place descended into madness, I jumped the rail. It was time to show these guys how it was done.

  Eve

  I watched in amazement as the new vampire Gideon had asked me to keep an eye on – from a distance that is – jumped the railings of the balcony opposite me and dropped to the floor below, landing smack bang in the middle of the biggest fight I had seen in the place yet.

  I had known that this was going to happen. All night I’d had a sick feeling that something was going to kick off. All the vampires seemed to be on edge, twitchy. Hell, even the guys that I would usually happily stand and chat with – for a minute or two at least – the ones that you could see had control down to a T were making me nervous tonight.

  It looks like I had been right.

  So many fights had broken out that I had lost count. I had watched over them all from above while keeping a close eye upon the vampire that Gideon had refused. It wasn’t very often that Gideon refused someone permission to stay in the area, and when he did, he usually explained his reasoning to me… but not this time. As soon as he had told me that he had refused the guy and wanted him under constant surveillance until he left the area, I had asked why.

  “What is it about him that has you refusing?” I had asked, taking note of the way he kept nervously running his hand over the back of his neck. It was something I had seen him do very little over the past few years. It wasn’t very often that a Master vampire had something to worry about. What was it about this guy that was different?

  “I just don’t like the bastard, that’s all. He’s nothing but trouble.”

  “We deal with trouble in here on a nightly basis, and you’ve never refused any of them entry.”

  He gazed at me with worried eyes, sighing heavily. “Thayne is a whole different kind of trouble. The type of trouble that we really don’t want around here.”

  Well from what I could see, it looked like this whole new kind of trouble was about to kick some ass, and save Trent, Reese and Chad a whole lot of work.

  The moment his feet touched the ground, he was off, moving so fast that he was barely a blur. If I didn’t know the signs to look for when it came to vampires running at top speed, I would have thought that the invisible man was real.

  Bodies started flying through the air, landing almost on the other side of the room in a large heap, all of them unconscious and none of them human. All the vampires that had joined in the fight ended up knocked out while all the humans involved ended up shoved out a fire door to the left of the booths.

  The pattern continued until the only ones remaining were the two that had started the fight and injured the poor drunken woman that had screamed so loud that not even the pounding music coming over the sound system had been able to cover it. She now lay in a heap on the floor, her arm at a funny angle and an open wound on her neck, which was slowly trickling drops of blood upon the floor.

  Great.

  There were officially no cleaning companies left in the area that we could use. After the last one quit after spending all day cleaning up last night’s mess, I had spent hours trying to find another one. No luck. It seemed that we'd been blacklisted; none of the companies I had called would even consider working for us. But looking around, it appeared that the only blood spilt was the woman’s and so far it was only a small amount. I just hoped it was going to stay that way.

  The two that had started the fight seemed oblivious to everything, only concerned with taking a bite out of each other and not what had been happening around them. Thayne stood glaring at them, watching their every move as he lifted the edge of his shirt and removed something from a holster at his side. I wasn’t sure what it was, the little amount of light in here making it hard for me to see, but I did know it was shiny.

  As he moved closer to the pair and raised his hand, I saw a flash of silver, before he grabbed one of the vampires and slung him to the floor hard, his arm holding the item quickly following and slamming into his chest. The next moment he had repeated the move on the other guy – who had been standing with a look of complete shock upon his face – before he had time to turn and run.

  What had he done? As I looked down upon the scene, I could tell that the two vampires were dead. Truly and utterly dead.

  The club quickly emptied, none of the humans wanting to remain. But I wasn’t worried. They’d be back. A lot of our breathing customers were familiars or ‘twilight’ fans. I had no doubt in my mind that they would be back the next night to spread gossip about what they had seen.

  The bodies of the two vampires were removed and taken to the enclosed garden outback. It was always the first place to be hit by the sun in the mornings, so that would take care of the bodies. The woman was patched up to a reasonable standard – meaning that her neck was tidied up from where one of the vampires had latched on with his fangs during the fight – so that she could be taken to the hospital. She also had a broken arm that needed looking at from where the other vampire had grabbed her and yanked her away.

  During all of this, the new guy shouted out directions to Trent, Reese and Chad, pointing out ways in which they could have gotten there earlier. When I overheard him who was in charge of cleaning and explaining how the strong scent of blood in the club had contributed to the vampires lack of control, I rushed to the office to see Gideon. I had an idea.

  “Did you see what he did? How he dealt with those guys?” I panted as I flew through the door and slammed it behind me. “That guy has some serious moves. We need him, Gideon. Trent, Reese and Chad try their best, but we both know it’s not enough. This guy is exactly what we need.”

  “You’re right that the guys need some training, more experience. But Thayne is not the one to teach them. He may be good at what he does, but we don’t need any of his kind around here.”

  “His kind?” What did that mean? Thayne was a vampire, the same kind of being that Gideon was. What the fuck was he
talking about, his kind?

  “It does not matter,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Thayne will be gone by dusk. We don’t need him.”

  “You did see him stop those vamps, right? Split up the fight without any other injuries occurring, other than the ones those two guys had already inflicted upon that human.”

  “You mean did I see him kill those vampires? Yes, I did.”

  “With the fight on the scale it was, you would have killed them yourself once they were up for trial before you. And knowing how well the other guys responded to the fight breaking out it is plainly obvious that the woman, and probably a few more people, could have died in it.”

  What I said was the truth; he just didn’t want to admit it. Whatever reason Gideon had for not trusting this Thayne, he wouldn’t tell me, but it was clouding his judgment. “We need him.”

  “No we don’t!” he snapped as the door behind me was pushed open and Trent, Reese and Chad all came crashing in.

  “That guy is just what we need around here,” Trent said flopping down in the chair before the desk.

  “Someone with the skills needed to put this place back in order,” Chad continued, taking up his usual position at the door.

  “Someone that doesn’t vanish on us when trouble hits, like that good for nothing Vince,” Reese growled as he threw himself down upon the sofa in the corner of the room.

  I couldn’t help but smile. I had been fighting a losing battle with Gideon, trying to convince him of our need for this Thayne all by myself, but I wasn’t alone. Trent, Reese and Chad all felt the same. They recognised the qualities Thayne held and our need for him. Now all we had to do was convince Gideon.

  “You know who he is, right?” Gideon raged, glaring at the men.

  “Of course we know who he is. That is the exact reason that he would be perfect. And weren’t you saying just last night that we needed to find someone with more experience to help retain order in this place? He’s the one.”

  Was Thayne someone special? Someone important? Surely if he were, Gideon wouldn’t have denied permission. Would he?

  It was evident that Gideon wasn’t going to cave easily. What was his problem? “What’s a matter? Why don’t you want him around here?”

  When he ignored my question, refusing to give me an answer, Trent piped up. “Is he on a job? That’s the only thing I can think of that would make you turn him away. Is he after one of our own?”

  “He says he is between jobs,” Gideon admitted, his reluctance to answer the question obvious.

  “Then what the fuck is the problem?” Reese yelled.

  “He’s a fucking assassin! That’s the fucking problem!”

  An assassin? Now I wasn’t so sure if I wanted him to stick around or not.

  Thayne

  Things had taken a sudden change in the right direction. Thank fuck!

  I’d been sat at the bar talking to Dean, the barman, who had warmed up to me since I’d broken up the large fight that had been getting closer and closer to his bar by the second. Apparently he’d only just had the top replaced after the last big fight cracked it, and he didn’t want the new one to get even a scratch on it. We’d been deep in conversation, a young familiar named Pippa snuggled in his arms smiling up at him lovingly when Gideon approached me, his hair in disarray as if he’d been pulling at it, his fists clenched at his sides.

  Pippa took one look at the Master vampire’s face and departed quickly. I didn’t blame her. He didn’t seem euphoric. What had I done now to piss him off now?

  Coming up beside me, he mumbled something that I didn’t quite catch. “What?”

  Taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, he repeated, “Do you still want that job?”

  “What?” I laughed. “Just a few hours ago you were giving me my marching orders.”

  “Yes, well, things changed.”

  Yep, like my saving his club from destruction.

  I was just wondering why he’d changed his mind, what could have happened to make his stubborn ass offer me a job when the three vampires from his security team pushed their way over.

  “Well?”

  “Is he taking the job?”

  “Have you stopped being a fucking ass yet?”

  I had to try seriously hard to keep my face straight with that last one.

  Face flushing with anger and frustration, he reluctantly asked, “So do you still want the job or not?”

  “You haven’t told me what the job is yet?” I smiled. I shouldn’t really tease him, but it was just so much fun.

  “Security… and training this bunch.”

  I could have refused. Could have made him stew and beg. But I needed the job, and they really did need the help. Not that I was going to tell him that. With employment in this place, I’d have the perfect opportunity to get to know all his staff and customers, both human and vampire alike. Someone was bound to know something; it was obvious to me already that something was going on around here. Gideon had tried to get rid of me for a reason. The question was why?

  “I’ll take the job. But there’s one problem,” I added seeing an opportunity and taking it.

  “What’s that?”

  “The sun will be rising soon, and I don’t have any place arranged to stay for the day.”

  “I thought you said you would sort that yourself?” he asked, remembering my earlier words.

  Back then I hadn’t known he was going to be such a bastard about me being here. If I were going to get any chance of looking around this place when it was empty, I’d need to be here during the day when he wasn’t. “That was before you refused me, and I didn’t see any point in arranging anything after that. So do you have anywhere I can stop?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” he answered stiffly.

  “What about the cellar?” one of the guys helpfully put in. “We have that whole section down there cleared out from when Trent needed somewhere to stay.”

  I swear Gideon was going to shatter his teeth with how hard he was clenching them.

  “I really don’t think…”

  “You’ll be okay with kipping in the cellar, right? It’s nothing fancy, and you’ll have to sleep on a futon, but there are no windows, so you’ll be safe from the daylight.”

  I liked these guys already. I could tell that Gideon was about to blow his top. He didn’t want me here, but it looked like his staff had worn him down.

  “Oh for fuck sake! Fine, you can sleep in the damn cellar. But I want you out of there as soon as possible. And if I get one whiff of you stepping foot out of there during the day, I will have you staked out to burn.”

  I’d just have to make sure he didn’t catch me then.

  ***

  The cellar turned out to be better than I had expected it to be. When the guys had suggested it, I’d imaged a dark and dingy corner of a room filled to the top with kegs of beer and crates. Instead, what I stepped into was a vast and spacious room. It was located just to the left of the stairs leading down into the cellar. It was a little on the dingy side, but it was clean at least. And the futon seemed to be a new one, so that was a bonus.

  “This okay, mate?” Reese asked.

  Gideon had stormed away back to his office as soon as I’d accepted the job and promised to help train up the guys. They all seemed really keen to learn a few things from me. Though, apparently, there was another guy on the team, one I had yet to meet. I’d asked if it was his day off as I’d not spotted anyone else working the club. It turned out that this Vince was indeed working, but they had no clue as to where he was. The first thing we would have to deal with would be his behaviour. He wasn't going to be disappearing on the job when I was in charge.

  “Yeah, it’s great.”

  “Well, I’m off.” He nodded. “There is a fridge of blood down here if you ever need it. But I’ll warn you, cold, bagged blood tastes like shit.”

  “So I’ve heard.” I laughed, thinking back to a friend of mine that had once lived off the stuff. I d
oubted I would be trying any… ever.

  “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow night. And thanks, man. We really need some help getting this place back in shape,” he said as he disappeared out the door.

  They sure did. I was still shocked by how out of control this place was. The place had gone to pot since Gideon had taken over. He hadn’t always been the owner of this place. It was only during the last few years that Gideon had started to make a name for himself and then took out the old Master, Denton. When Denton had run the place, it had run like a well-oiled machine.

  It still surprised me – and everybody else – that Gideon had managed to take him out. We’d all thought that old bastard would always be around. That’s one of the main reasons I’d been sent here now. Something just didn’t feel right.

  Once I knew Reese was gone, and I was truly alone, I began the necessary process of checking my new home for bugs and cameras. I wouldn't have put it passed Gideon to rig something up down here while I was talking to the guys.

  After three sweeps of the room, I’d found two small cameras and one listening device. After a fourth sweep, I was satisfied that there were no others. I would need to do another sweep tomorrow after working in the club. I knew Gideon well enough to know that he would try to replace the ones I had found.

  Stripping off my shirt, I grabbed the blankets Reese had brought down for me and made myself comfortable for the day. I wouldn't go snooping around yet. I needed Gideon to have some trust in me first. I would also need to do something about the club CCTV before I could do so safely. It was going to take a while, so it was best that I put off finding a place of my own for a week or two, come up with some form of excuse.

  Gideon was going to be so pissed.

  Eve

  There truly were no cleaning companies within a fifty-mile radius that would take the job. It had taken me over five hours of calling companies a couple of towns over before I finally found one that would travel over and clean the place… but at a cost. Gideon wouldn’t be happy, but what could I do about it? Finally, utterly exhausted, I stumbled into my apartment above the club.