Well This Sucks - CoraLee June Page 0,9

barely been waiting for five minutes when a tall man wearing a bouncer’s T-shirt approached us, staring at me with glassy, lifeless eyes. It felt like he was trying to look all the way into my soul. “Come with me.”

“Me?” I asked while looking down at my dress. Oh yeah. This sexy little number did the trick.

He huffed. “Yes.”

I had never gotten to skip a line before, so I was feeling myself. My inner goddess was fist pumping the air. That’s right. I’ve still got it. I reached out for Ryan’s hand and pulled him along with me. The bouncer gave Ryan a dirty look, but he didn’t say anything. He led us up to the front and unclasped the black velvet rope to let us pass. People in the line who had been waiting for hours groaned.

I felt it in my gut. Tonight was my lucky night.

Diego

The screams were tedious.

Torturing people was always the same.

Threats. Pain. Bloodshed. Death.

My second in command tore Lawrence Wright’s ear off with his bare hands, and the slimy vamp was being a total pussy about it.

“Please! Stop!”

Ah, I forgot that step. The pleading. They always begged, didn’t they?

Being king had its perks, but when overseeing a supernatural race of killers, you had to rule with an iron fist. I rolled my neck before speaking. “You turned your grandmother, who was suffering from dementia,” I replied in a bored tone. “You know the rules. No children. No elderly. The change could have killed her, and now we have an uncontrollable variable on the streets.”

Lawrence, a lower ranking vampire who was turned just last year, whimpered. He knew the rules. Not a vampire in my coven could turn anyone without my explicit permission. Hell, some spouses had to petition for years before I allowed it. We took many things into consideration. Mental aptitude. Physical fitness. Social life and careers. We didn’t want just anyone changing, nor did we want to uproot someone’s life who wasn’t completely prepared for the changes that came with becoming a creature of the night. All my vampires were expected to accept that this was a gift, not a right I refused to change immortality chasers, and this fucking idiot went and turned his grandmother because he felt bad watching her age. He’d feel even worse when I put a stake through her heart.

“But it cured her dementia,” he argued. “She’s transitioning well!”

“I need a list of all the people she’s fed from since being turned,” I demanded.

“B-but I already checked. Grams didn’t use any venom.”

I rolled my eyes. “Forgive me for not taking your word for it. I need a list. Now. Write it down before I tear each of your fingers off and feed them to my dog.”

“I don’t even know their names,” he argued. “Hell, one was just some girl I was making out with in an alley.”

I eyed my second in command, Rocky, and nodded. My ever-loyal muscle surged forward and broke every bone in Lawrence’s hand with a single blow. The weaker vampire cried out in pain, his shrill cries echoing off the walls. What kind of asshole made out with a girl in an alley, then fed her to his grandmother?

“A list. Now. Since it’ll take your hand at least an hour to heal, and I don’t feel like setting the bones, you’ll have to relay as much information as you can to Rocky before he slices up your pretty boy face. Cuts heal fast, and Rocky doesn’t like watching his hard work disappear. He’ll cut you again, and again, and again.”

“Sir,” Claire interrupted. I gave Lawrence one more look before walking over to the doorway where one of my best friends stood. She was wearing a little black dress and had mischief in her eyes. She was ever the elegant vampire, moving with stealth and grace. Claire was beautiful and the most helpful member on the council, but I didn’t fuck the people I employed. “There is an undocumented fledgling at Bites Bar. One of the bouncers found her standing in line outside.”

I growled in frustration. Lawrence Wright just signed his own death warrant. Bites Bar was our haven, it was spelled to attract all vampires in the vicinity. It was like a moth to a flame. It helped me keep track of visitors and fledglings. One way or another, they all eventually wandered into Bites. “Does she look like she’s had her first feed?”

“No. She’s in the euphoria stage.”

I pinched the bridge of my