Loyalty Oath Read online

  Loyalty Oath

  Edmund Hughes

  This digital book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this title with another person, please purchase an additional copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Edmund Hughes

  Kindle Edition

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I want to acknowledge all the people who have supported my work, either through advice, reviews, editing, or proofreading. And of course, my fantastic cover artist, Cherry-gig,

  Contents

  Loyalty Oath

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 1

  The club was dark, but not as dark as Jack would have liked. It was a single open room, with no nooks and crannies or hidden hallways. Or single-occupancy bathrooms. Not that he would ever feed so brazenly, but they were all details that he couldn’t help but notice as a vampire.

  The music was the same loud, generic mixture of EDM that played every night. Jack stood off to the side of the main dance floor, along the bar. The girl that he’d picked out earlier in the evening was saying something, but he couldn’t for the life of him hear what. He shook his head, flashed a charming smile, and—for what felt like the thousandth time that hour—yelled, “What?”

  She repeated herself. Jack still didn’t hear her, and he used it as an excuse to lean in a little closer. She fit his usual archetype. Medium-length blonde hair with ridiculous pink highlights. A leather choker with a color-changing mood gem at the center. Tight grey halter top, along with short denim jeans. Cute, but not beautiful, and he’d seen her around before. She was a denizen of the party lifestyle, and most importantly, she smelled good.

  “Buy me another drink?” said the girl, all but screaming to be heard.

  Jack raised an eyebrow at her, holding her gaze for a second with a coy smile on his face.

  “I’ll do you one better,” he said. “I live nearby, and my apartment has a minibar. Let’s get out of here.”

  He started walking before the girl said yes, and she followed him after a moment of careful consideration. Arc City was large enough that it never seemed to sleep, and a dozen people were still waiting in line to get inside the club, despite the late hour.

  It was foggy out, which had the effect of making the shape of the world feel defined by the lights. Car lights, street lights, and window lights all took priority over the objects they belonged to, like singular points in a child’s Lite-Brite.

  “Aren’t you going to call an Uber to come pick us up?” asked the girl.

  Jack smiled and extended his arm toward her, crooked at the elbow.

  “No need,” he said. “I live nearby.”

  They were downtown, where property was so expensive that almost nobody lived nearby. The girl blinked a few times at him, wearing her skepticism openly in her expression. Then she looped her arm through his and let Jack lead her across the street.

  A block and a half later, they entered the front lobby of the Hotel Cartier. It had a bar and lounge of its own, off to the side on the ground floor. Jack had learned early on that it wasn’t the best idea to harvest from his own backyard, so to speak. He led the girl with the pink highlights and the mood gem choker over to the private elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.

  “Seriously?” asked the girl. “That’s one of the penthouses, isn’t it? But you’re like… my age. Does your dad own the place or something?”

  Jack winced at her question, but mostly kept his reaction from showing on his face. No, his dad did not own the place. His boss did, however, and at the moment, the two of them were still technically inhabiting the same body.

  “I got lucky and came into money at a young age,” said Jack. Which was also true, but not an exact answer for her question.

  The girl pulled her arm loose from his and gave Jack a questioning, wary stare.

  “What did you say your name was, anyway?” asked the girl.

  “I didn’t.” He grinned at her. “It’s Jack.”

  “Okay,” said the girl. “I’m Terra. And I’ve never… I mean… Why are you bringing me here, if you’re so rich? Shouldn’t you be dating supermodels, or actresses, or something?”

  Jack gave a small, somewhat forced shrug. He’d noticed something early on in his forays into the club scene and bringing girls back to his new apartment. They always got a little confused. He didn’t choose the girls he went after by their looks but by their smell, and it almost universally caught them off guard.

  It was as superficial of a metric as anything could be by which to pick out a potential partner, but only he knew that. To the girls, to Terra, with her flashy hair and perky personality, it must have seemed like he’d picked her for a different reason. A more romantic reason, perhaps. As though Jack was her pale, handsome Prince Charming, come to sweep her off her feet. It felt mean to let her think that. But it always worked.

  “There was just something about you,” said Jack. “I really wanted to get to know you better.”

  He reached a hand out, hesitating before letting it make contact with her cheek. Terra blinked a few times, her eyes flickering between his lips and his gaze. The elevator door opened right as the tension became persuasive. Jack took her by the hand and led her into the hall, and then into his apartment.

  It had already been furnished when Mezolak had given him the key three months earlier. The demon’s taste in décor was remarkably good, and the penthouse’s main lounge had a nice, modern couch and a crystalline glass table. The view out over the skyline through the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony was particularly breathtaking, and Jack saw Terra head straight toward it as soon as she’d taken her shoes off.

  He’d been so nervous the first time he’d brought a girl back. For the typical reasons, but also for a few that were unique to him, as a vampire. Now, it felt almost routine. Not boring, but easy and unsurprising. He made his way over to the minibar and set out a glass for each of them.

  “Wow,” said Terra. “I would be at the club every night if I lived so close by.”

  “It has its upsides,” said Jack. “Location goes a long way.”

  He pulled out
a bottle of expensive bourbon, some ginger ale, and the clear decanter in which he kept the most important ingredient of the cocktails he mixed for the women he entertained.

  “What do you do for work?” Terra turned away from the window, meandering toward the couch. “Do you even work, or are you just one of those trust fund guys?”

  “I work quite a bit,” said Jack. “Long hours usually, too.”

  “Finance?” asked Terra. “I feel like I would have heard of you before if you were an actor. I do a bit of acting, myself.”

  “No,” said Jack. “I’m… a problem solver.”

  Terra furrowed her brow and frowned slightly. Jack slowly mixed her drink, making sure the ratio of all the liquids was just so.

  “A problem solver?” asked Terra. “If you don’t want to tell me, you can just say so, instead of being vague and mysterious about it.”

  “Force of habit,” said Jack. “Trust me on that. I just don’t like talking about my job.”

  That much was true. Killing for Mezolak was not something that made him feel good, even if it had so far been limited to people who’d clearly deserved it. Jack wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that the handful of people he’d been commanded to eliminate had been murderers, scumbags, and in one case, a self-taught warlock. Mezolak had a lot of enemies, and that was just about the only fact he’d been able to siphon from the otherwise random-seeming series of targets.

  “What do you like to talk about then, Jack?” asked Terra.

  She came over to the minibar. Jack held her drink out to her, and she let her fingers graze against his as she took it from him.

  “What a beautiful night it is,” he said. “And what a beautiful woman I have to share it with.”

  “That was really cheesy,” said Terra.

  Jack shrugged and grinned at her. He took a sip of his drink, and he watched as she took one of hers and made a face.

  “Do you like it?” he asked.

  “It’s… interesting,” she said.

  “In a good way?” asked Jack.

  Terra nodded.

  “It tastes like…” She frowned slightly. “It’s interesting. I can’t quite describe it.”

  “A friend of mine once told me it tasted like Christmas dinner, but sickly sweet,” he said.

  “Yeah,” said Terra. “That’s it.”

  Jack came around to the other side of the minibar. He finished his drink and made sure Terra had done the same before stepping in close to her.

  “You had an ulterior motive for bringing me up here, didn’t you?” said Terra, in a teasing voice.

  “Oh,” said Jack. “If you only knew the half of it.”

  CHAPTER 2

  He let his hand rest on Terra’s cheek. She kissed one of his fingers and briefly sucked on the tip of it. Jack wrapped an arm around her, letting his hand settle on her butt through her denim jean shorts. She had a nice butt, and nice breasts, too. There was nothing wrong with her from a physical standpoint.

  But she wasn’t Ryoko, or Mira. Or even Katie. She didn’t stir anything within him. Jack brought his mouth forward and kissed her, and it was pleasant enough. But there was no flutter of emotions within him. No reaction from his heart. Other places, however, did react.

  Terra laughed as he scooped up her light body in his arms, carrying her into his room as he planted kisses on her neck. She let out a little squeal as she landed on the mattress, and made a show of stretching out with her legs crossed and her arms pulled together to frame and push up her breasts.

  “I’m on the pill,” said Terra. “You can do whatever you want with me.”

  “I plan on it,” said Jack.

  He joined her on the bed, pulling off his stylish, slim-fit t-shirt and risking a squeeze of one of her breasts. Terra obliged him with a smile and then pulled her crop top over her head. She was wearing a black lace bra underneath it, and Jack ran his fingers over the silky fabric before finding the clasp in back and unhooking it.

  Again, he found himself appreciating her endowments. Her nipples were pale and insubstantial, and it gave her breasts an unusual, rounded quality. Jack ran his hands across them, and then down her stomach, his fingers making short work of the last few obstacles in the way of what he wanted. Terra wiggled out of her shorts as soon as he had them unbuttoned and unzipped, and Jack disposed of his own pants.

  They kissed, pressing their nearly naked bodies together and getting a sense of how they fit. Jack rubbed his palm against her panties, enjoying the way she pushed against him and reacted to his touch. Terra seemed eager to get free him from the oppression of his boxers, and as soon as she did, her hand found what lay underneath them.

  Jack stopped doing anything and watched her for a moment as she slowly began to stroke. It felt nice. Nice enough that he let his guard down and made the mistake of inhaling through his nose. Terra’s scent hit him like a rushing gust of wind. She smelled like a mixture of mangos and bananas, except more enticing than either in a way that he couldn’t quite place.

  “Mmm…” said Terra. “Well, I’m glad the penthouse wasn’t you over-compensating for other places.”

  Jack just smiled at her. He let his fingers dip into the waistband of her panties and slowly pulled them down.

  “You don’t have to be gentle, you know,” said Terra.

  “Trust me, I do,” said Jack.

  Terra licked her lips. “I’m a grown woman. I can take it.”

  Jack felt his smile twitch. He shifted Terra to the center of the bed and let his shaft align itself with its target.

  “Can you, now?” he asked.

  He pushed forward before she could answer, entering her with a single, smooth thrust. Terra jerked her head back, and her fingers dug into the mattress underneath her. With a deliberate, punishing slowness, Jack began to move inside of her.

  He was true to his word, kissing her lips and cheek with gentle appreciation. He resisted the urge to let himself go wild. He’d made that mistake with the second girl he’d brought back to his place, and the experience had left such an impact on her that Jack doubted she’d ever be able to have a healthy sex life moving forward. He had no interest in getting the girls he entertained addicted to rough sex with vampires.

  Terra, despite her earlier comments, clearly did not need rough sex to get off. Jack was a little surprised when she tensed up after what couldn’t have been more than a minute, pressing her mouth against his shoulder to stifle a passionate cry that nobody could have heard, anyway.

  He kept going. He worked Terra’s body over, and worked up a sweat in the process. He was careful about his rhythm and his pace, gently teasing her back to the point of ecstasy without overdoing it. He let his own pleasure build. He needed to time it just right.

  “Oh!” cried Terra. “Holy fuck!”

  Jack let out a low, passionate grunt as he sprinted across his own limit. There it was. The moment he’d spent the entire night carefully orchestrating. In that moment of shared climax, he finally pressed his mouth to her neck and sank his fangs in deep.

  Terra gasped, her entire body tensing, and then slackening, and then tensing again. Jack took a moderate-sized sip of her blood, full of rich, tropical undertones, and then quickly pulled back. It was a rush for him, too, especially alongside his own sexual release, but in a different way. It was a careful, controlled rush. He didn’t drink his fill of her blood. He tried not to let himself enjoy it, at least not too much.

  “Jesus…” muttered Terra. “That was…. wow.”

  By dosing her with the anti-enthrallment potion ahead of time, Jack had taken the best precaution he could. He always waited until they were deep in the heat of the moment to initiate the actual bite, since it made the sensation of his teeth against her skin that much easier to explain. He never let himself feed off the same girl more than once a month, which meant that he constantly needed to bring in new ones to compensate for shifting schedules and availability.

  He’d been getting away with it. He st
ill felt a little guilty, but so far, it didn’t seem as though he’d caused any of the women permanent harm. Jack considered it to be a temporary solution, but he’d also thought that about the penthouse—and serving under Mezolak.

  “I’ve never had sex like that before,” said Terra. “You… are incredible.”

  Jack leaned over her and planted a kiss on her forehead. He heard his phone vibrate from the pocket of his jeans and cursed when he saw the screen after fishing it out.

  “My boss just texted me,” said Jack. “I’m going to have to send you home.”

  “This late at night?” asked Terra. “What is it that you do, again?”

  “Sometimes I wonder that myself,” he said. “I’ll call you an Uber.”

  Terra pouted, but she didn’t complain. She hooked her bra on backwards before sliding it around to cover her pale breasts and then wiggled back into the rest of her tiny outfit.

  “Are you at least going to ask for my number?” she said, pouting a little.

  “There’s a whiteboard on the fridge,” said Jack. “Just scribble it down on your way out.”

  The whiteboard also had the names and numbers of half a dozen other women he’d seduced and fed off recently. It was intentional, and he wanted Terra to see it. The impression it gave kept the women Jack got involved with from expecting too much from him.

  There was nothing wrong with Terra, but he couldn’t let her or anyone else get too close. It still hurt him to think about just how badly his presence alone had affected the women of his old life. Ryoko, and the attempt she’d made on her own life. Mira, getting shot in the chest just for trying to stay by his side. And Katie, whose conscience had forced her to leave after realizing that she was falling in love with a monster.

  He let out a sigh and forced himself up out of bed as soon as he heard the door shut behind Terra. Mezolak usually told him ahead him ahead of time when he was going to be needed on a specific night. The text simply read, I’m on my way to pick you up. The lack of specific details did not bode well.

  Jack was continually surprised by how different serving Mezolak had been from what he’d expected. Namely, the fact that it was tolerable at all.