DECEPTIONS
By
Isabelle Arocho
isabellearocho.com
Copyright 2012 Isabelle Arocho
Thank you for downloading this free eBook. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s mind and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organization, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
License Notes
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or edited in anyway. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Chapter 1
I ran away from home at the age of fifteen scared and alone because I couldn’t handle the life I knew was waiting for me otherwise. I ran to a place I thought I could find happiness; normalcy. I found happiness, at least for awhile, except it was anything but normal. I never knew normal.
I walked inside the large mansion style house that once held a feeling of home and love, now I only visited if it was needed for work. I came when called and left soon after. I was a courier for Michael Winston; a very powerful vampire in town that oversaw all his father’s businesses. His father was semi-retired now and relinquishing control. Why did immortal vampires feel the need to retire? They weren’t getting older.
Michael’s office was at the end of the hallway on the first floor. I knocked and stepped inside. Seeing his beautiful face never seemed to get easier. I knew Michael and his family for years, for a long time I considered them my own family. I stood in front of him. I didn’t say anything because with Michael, less said meant more.
He stepped from behind his desk and handed me an envelope. “I need you to put this in Caleb Nikolas’ hands.”
I took it. “It’s sunset, you don’t necessarily need me to do this.” I was their daywalker. During the night Michael conducted business himself or a higher up in the organization took on the task.
“Caleb is only willing to read the proposal if you deliver it.” Michael leaned back against his desk. “Do you know why that is?”
I could sniff out Michael’s jealously before the thought entered his mind. “I haven’t spoken more than twenty words to Caleb in all the years he’s been in town. I’m just the messenger, it’s not my job to figure anything out.” I explained tightly. I resented his jealously. He gave up the right years ago to have any opinion about my life.
“Does he know what you are?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. What I do care about is you questioning me when it’s none of your business. You left me, remember?” I couldn’t ignore the harsh facts.
He grew silent. “That was a long time ago.”
Not long enough to forget the pain every time I saw his green eyes. “Exactly, no more questions unless it has to do with the job. I’ll get this to him.” I left the room, once again wondering why I worked for the Winston vampire family. In the end, I always felt like I owed them my loyalty.
Caleb Nikolas was an Alpha werewolf to the Grayson Pack. No one knew exactly when he came to town and took over for Thomas McGill. I only knew Caleb’s been involved with various businesses for the last five years. I knew of him through his dealings with Michael and the fact he lived three houses down from mine. I didn’t know him though; I knew only what I saw and nothing of the man himself.
I stopped home first to ditch my work uniform for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, before walking over to his place. Caleb shared the home with his daughter when she visited. I’d never seen anyone outside the pack visit him, especially of the female variety. He usually conducted any work in the packs’ main house; an office of sorts surrounded by miles of forest. I suspected they used the land to run when a full moon sat bright in the sky too.
With his car parked in the driveway it was a safe bet he was there and I wouldn’t have to go to the Grayson compound. It wasn’t my favorite place to visit in the world. I liked to avoid it at all costs.
Caleb’s fifteen year old daughter, Jamie, answered the door. “Evie! Another package for dad?”
“Yeah, is he here?”
“Yup, hold on a second.” She turned around and called out for him loud enough to wake the dead in the cemetery ten miles away. “I was just on my way out.”
“Where ya headed?”
Jamie turned around to make sure we were still alone before confessing, “A date. Don’t tell dad.”
I smiled. “I won’t.”
“Thanks!” she ran outside the same moment I stepped inside. The house was always nicely clean, yet still showed signs of being lived in. Magazines littered the coffee table, the pillows along the sofa weren’t in order, leaving the house with a nice and classy feel to it.
Caleb came down the stairs with an effortless jog. “She left?”
I nodded yes.
“I wanted her to wait.” Caleb was very protective of his human daughter and with every right. He knew all too well of the dangers that lurked closely by, even of the one living on the same street with them. He stepped off the staircase wearing his business casual outfit of black slacks and a dark buttoned down shirt. The only indication he was home and relaxing was the shirt wasn’t tucked in anymore.
I handed him the envelope. “Here. Is there a reason you wanted me to deliver this or did you just want to piss Michael off?” The two men worked together for the good of the town to prevent a war that would lead to too much bloodshed, but they hated each other and made no secret about it. I refused to be a pawn in their continuing game to one up each other. I might have to consider seeking a different line of work if it kept up. Conflict was something I kept far from. Conflict could lead to exposure and exposure led to threats.
“It’s too easy to ruffle his feathers by using jealously. I wanted you here to talk about Jamie.” Caleb walked over to the living room mantel and placed the envelop on top of it to be looked at later. “I know you two sometimes talk.”
“Is that a problem?” Jamie was one of the few people I interacted with outside of work. She reminded me a little of my life before it ended several years back.
Continuing to move with a deadly grace, Caleb took a seat on the couch. “No, since the divorce there’s a lot she doesn’t tell me and her mother. I’m glad she can talk to someone.” He let that sink in before getting to the main topic. “She’s been hanging out with Ray and it needs to stop.” There was a harsh undertone in his voice reflecting the anger along his dark blue eyes. He was worried about Jamie and he couldn’t control her like he could his pack.
Now I understood his need to talk to me. Ray was one of Michael’s vampires. “You want me to run interference?” I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that.
“Talk to Jamie, she’ll listen to you.”
I sighed and agreed with him, she shouldn’t be near Ray. “Does she know that I’m technically a vampire?”
“No and I’m not sure she’d believe you considering...”
Considering I walked in sunlight, I didn’t feed off blood, and crosses and holy water had no affect on me. Some vampire huh? But I was immortal to never age again since the night of my twenty-first birthday. I should be twenty-six. The virus hadn’t fully infected me and I believed it had to be the fact I wasn’t human to begin with. No one else knew that, to the public I was a vampire when I never fully could be one. “I’ll talk to her before something goes too far and she’s bitten but I can’t tell her or Ray what to do. You should talk to her as well.” I explained while I slowly made my way to the front door.
“I have and she doesn’t listen.”
I faintly thought of my parents. “What teenage girl does?”
Chapter 2
I didn’t like to be near Caleb Nikolas for any longer than I needed to be. Werewolves and vamp
ires didn’t get along, it was in their nature to hate each other, and while I wasn’t the traditional vampire, there was still a great deal of tension between us.
Lately I didn’t want to be near anyone unless I had to, animosity or not. I worked days and nights during the week as a hostess for one of the Winston family owned restaurants. During my free time, I ran packages and messages for Michael for a nice fee. I had desperately wanted to escape the Winston family after my break up with Michael but I made a life around them, that and I didn’t want to run anymore. When it got too bad being near the man I still loved I reminded myself it was still better than the alterative.
When I ran away from home there was something about Celestin City that called out to me in a soft loving whisper of belonging my heart ached for. The month prior to settling in I drifted from town to town.
After picking Celestin to settle down, it wasn’t a week later that I met Michael. I applied for a job at the restaurant; La Amour, and landed it even though I lied about my age on my resume. My first night there I saw Michael when he came to see his father who liked to double as a chef in the kitchen.
I remembered I stopped breathing as I watched him walk through the doors. His eyes were so green and light, with his dark brown hair they stood out even during that gloomy night. He hadn’t seen me and I was glad because, again, I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until he was gone for a good five minutes my breath returned. Later during closing time his father introduced him to the new girl; me. Being a perfect gentleman Michael smiled and said hello.
After a few months of hello and goodbyes we began to talk and got to know each other as friends would. Soon the desire for more grew and grew but Michael vowed he wouldn’t touch me sexually until I turned eighteen. I was so in love and in lust that something like age didn’t matter to me. We argued several times over it and in the end we did it his way and remained chaste.
I always knew that he was a vampire, his father too, and I knew about the other supernatural beings in town because I could sense them. Knowing Michael was a vampire and deadly never turned me away, I never cared. He was my first crush, my first mate, my first and last love.
One night we went too far, his limits were pushed to the edge, he bit and changed me. After that his father felt our relationship should end, Michael agreed and said we never should’ve been together in the first place. It broke my heart because I knew he blamed himself for what happened, the turn and the failure of it never full taking. I understood his point of view, to a point, but in the end I didn’t care. He shattered my heart and the love we shared. Deep down I hated him for it.
For a long time I wanted to pack up and escape the heart break by running to another town. I thought about the life I made for myself outside the shadows of my past and couldn’t do it. I couldn’t run anymore.
I kept my jobs with the Winston family and vowed to eventually get Michael out of my heart. Five years later I was still trying to do just that.
It was late into the night or early morning considering how you looked at it. I laid in my bedroom wide awake with the day’s events in my head. They were mostly about Michael and when I couldn’t take it anymore I thought of Jamie and Caleb.
Jamie was making a big mistake if she and Ray were more than friends. I was proof a relationship with a vampire couldn’t work. That and her father was a powerful werewolf with a simmering temper.
Caleb moved into town a few months before I was turned, there was a good chance he knew what happened and wanted me to share with Jamie my own trials and errors. I made up my mind to talk to her after work later today. Jamie would be in town for another two months before getting shipped back home with her mom. That was more than enough time for trouble to arise.
Not in the mood to rush getting ready I got out of bed earlier than my usual wakeup time.
After showering I grabbed my work uniform. The styles varied here and there but the outfit was always a modest black dress. Being hostess you must to look nice and match the other wait staff, the waiters wore black with touches of white. I tied my sun streaked brown hair into a pony tail and added a little make up. The last touch was putting my family pendant back on. I ran from home eleven years ago but I couldn’t leave everything behind. I had vivid memories of being barely three years old and my mom explaining the responsibility I had not to lose it, that it was a very important part of our family.
The restaurant was open about twenty hours a day with a strong crowd during all the major dining points of the day; morning, lunch, and dinner. If La Amour was open there were customers.
I went through the back entrance and locked my bag away in my assigned locker. One of the waitresses, Megan, was there doing the same.
“Hey Evie.” She greeted with a smile. “The doors haven’t reopened yet and there’s already folks waiting. The boss’ food is like a drug.”
Dominic Winston was a mastermind in the kitchen and passed down his recipes to his trusted chefs. Being nearly a thousand years old he knew which foods worked and which ones didn’t. His vast experience brought back old culture to his establishments.
Megan continued to talk as we made our way through the restaurant. “Tonight is going be pretty tense, the boss is having a dinner party on the roof deck and you know how he gets for everything to be perfect.”
That meant a business meeting and there was a good chance it had something to do with the proposal I delivered to Caleb. I knew some of the agreements between the shifters and the undead, I delivered my fair messages between the two but it was never discussed out right with me. I knew what I knew because I was nosey and asked around. I kept listening as Meg expressed her worry about working a double shift while the boss was so close. She was a big people pleaser who didn’t like to disappoint and didn’t want to seem too tired for the task.
After a quick goodbye I went to my station. The restaurant carried an old French Quarter feel, during the day it was bright and shined lots of sunlight through the large doors. At night it was more candle lit and soft, alluring to all the vase crowds. The front door lead you down a hallway, at the end sat my podium with a reservation book, phone, and two shelves behind the old dark wood.
The doors opened five minutes later. Some customers reserved their favorite table days ahead and others were walk-ins we could sometimes fit. There was always a good chance to get a seat during the day. At night you needed a reservation because the undead came out to play and they frequented La Amour nightly. We sometimes got other supernaturals who didn’t mind putting aside a grudge and enjoying some good food.
I kept a smile in place as I showed the guests to their seats. I had perfected what I called my business smile; forced but well faked. I was filling in a new reservation when I noticed someone was standing in front of me. Not someone; Caleb. I knew it was him before I looked up. “Yes?”
He handed me back the envelope I delivered last night. “You can give this to Michael.”
I placed the envelope on one of my hidden shelves. “Soon?”
“When you can.” He said before giving a curt nod and leaving. I watched him go, noting he was much tenser than the other times he visited the restaurant. I had a feeling it was business wasn’t going well. When business goes bad with dangerous kinds like Caleb, it was safe to keep your eyes very open.
Chapter 3
During my lunch break I took the long scenic drive to Michael’s home. Most vampires slept during the day and I thought it was the best way to get in and out without having to see him. I didn’t want to risk any messy feelings bringing me down. I could leave the envelope on his desk and walk away. But much to my surprise he was awake and seated behind his desk. So much for in and out. “No sleep today?” I knew he would be at that meeting the staff was going crazy to have ready by sunset.
“Catnaps work just fine. Are you working the night shift?”
“No, Rosie is.” I quickly picked up on the fact Caleb wasn’t the only one walking around tense. I knew from past
experience when Michael worked during the day, it had to do with more than some shipping problem or disagreement amongst the business parties. “Is everything ok?”
“It’s fine.”
“Because you know if something was wrong, I’d help you.”
Michael looked up from his desk and his green eyes softened. “I know.”
“All right then, I should get back to work.” I turned around and left as my heart protested every step. I wanted to stick around and make him talk to me but the same way he lost his rights to me, I lost mine to him. I couldn’t demand answers or pout until I got my way anymore.
Since I was still on my lunch break I didn’t immediately go back to my post, instead I went to the back room and made a call. Rosie was glad when I offered to cover her shift because she didn’t like to work the night shift anyway. Things that came out during the darkest hours scared her. Vampires were made public a few weeks ago and now people like Rosie knew there was no doubt about what came out of the shadows.
With each passing hour the crowd would pick up and change. The day held simple business men and women dining with colleagues to discuss whatever it was they did. Toward sunset the crowd became secretive and mellower to the naked eye. To my eye, the non-humans began to join the living.
There was a separate list when Dominic held his roof top parties. I escorted those invited through the elevator up to the garden rooftop where there was a large table everyone sat at. It was meant to represent unity.
Caleb was one of the last to arrive. The hours since we last saw each other eased some tension from his shoulders. He looked like his normal hard ass self.
The elevator ride was silent and routine until it stopped with a rough jerk downward. I stumbled back where Caleb’s hands around my waist stopped me from hitting the floor. “Thanks.” I mumbled and pulled away from him. I walked over to the doors and banged on them. Yeah, like that was going to help. “Dominic is going to be pissed.” There was nothing my boss hated more than tardiness.