Blood Trial Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #1) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,77

sugar-high toddler.

“You’re welcome?” Kyros asked.

I looked at the door and groaned as curiosity overtook my hunger. “What’s an Indebted?”

“Vissimo who have broken vampire law. They lose clan status and become mercenaries who work to pay off their debt. Only then can they rejoin our society.”

“Just to be clear, these criminals will teach me to drive?” Was he nuts?

He spun in the chair to face the desk. “Most are second or third generation Indebted. They’re no trouble. Contrary to what you might expect, they are far less likely to act out than the rest of the clan.”

Oh, great. Perfect. That made me feel tons better. Though if the punishment for human crimes wasn’t confined to the wrongdoer and spanned generations, I might be compliant too.

I grunted. “That it?”

“That it,” he grunted back, attention on the large monitor on his desk.

Did Kyros just make a joke?

A grin and a joke in one night.

Next thing, a pig would fucking fly.

I strode for the door. First stop, Level 50. Then bed. Even with my three-hour nap, I was beat.

“Miss Tetley?” Angelica’s voice halted me.

She continued. “I thought you might like to know a woman named Tommy came by the office today.”

I tensed.

That wasn’t ideal. The last place I wanted my bestie turning up was Kyros Sky.

“And?”

“She wanted you to be informed that she’d return at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.”

I swung the door open and muttered under my breath, “Fuck.”

18

Ding!

I ran on tiptoes to my open office door, listening for all I was worth. Not that any of the staff came to the office at 9:00 a.m.

“Hello?”

Crap, crap, crap. It was Tommy. She’d really come.

I took a steadying breath, smoothing my white pantsuit. The sober evening in my hotel room last night told me one thing—most of Angelica’s hand-me-downs were white and royal blue.

I ran over my lines. Lines I wasn’t sure I could say around the compulsion. I successfully wrote them down last night, but that could mean anything.

Showtime.

I stepped into the hall. “Tommy.”

She whirled from the reception desk to find me. My eyes drank in the sight of her, and my legs coiled with the need to go to my friend. But if I did, she’d drag me out of here by my hair.

Tommy ran my way, and I strode to meet her halfway.

She threw herself against me, and I wrapped my arms tight about her. My heart pounded against my chest and I rested my cheek atop her head. Too many times in the last six days, I’d thought I would never see her again.

“It’s only been a few days, right? I feel like I haven’t seen you in a month.” I joked to cover the blissful agony of seeing her.

She tried to pull away, and I tightened my hold. As soon as Tommy got free, the interrogation would begin and I’d have to start lying.

“Dammit, Basi. Let me go. I’m going to yell at you.”

“Shh.” I lifted a leg to wrap it around her. “Ouch! You pinched me.”

Tommy didn’t apologise.

Pointing at my office, she said, “That yours?”

I nodded and hung my head as I followed her inside.

“What the actual fuck?” She whirled on me as soon as the door was closed. Nice of her to be considerate about my workmates and keep this in-house. If only she knew everyone could hear.

“Shit really blew up,” I stalled.

Tommy balled her fists. “I don’t hear from you all weekend. Then I get some bogus text about camping that you didn’t send. There weren’t any heart emojis.”

I had to stop using those.

“I was minutes away from calling your grandmother.”

“Tell me you didn’t,” I blurted.

“No,” she exploded. “But only because you finally deigned to reply.”

Thank fuck for that.

“I asked Angelica to text you,” I told her, relaxing somewhat when the vampire’s name left my lips without issue. “I was swamped after the run-in with Clint.”

She was too smart to completely take my decoy. “We aren’t done with your glamping story by a long shot, but I want to hear about what happened with that bastard.”

I shuddered at the memory. “I was stupid last week, Tom. I thought I got paid weekly, but it was fortnightly. I fell short on rent money. I tried to negotiate a better deal with him, but I accidentally mentioned I had stuff in the house. He took the keys—”

“How did he take the keys?” Her eyes narrowed.

My lips pressed together.

“Strip, Basi.”

“No.” I fended off her grabby hands.

“If he fucking laid hands on you, I’m going to take a baseball bat to his