Kiss a Vampire Box Set

Chapter 1

Chapter 1Three years later

Devin Jace opened the door to his room and listened. He cursed his human hearing. A few minutes ago, he’d woken up drenched in sweat and with a scream bouncing around in his mind. He needed to get out of his room for a bit, and his stomach grumbled since he hadn’t had lunch and couldn’t remember if he’d had dinner, so a trip to the kitchen would be perfect.

The kitchen was always filled with food. There were six people, not counting himself, living in the huge house, and everyone but Mars was a shifter. He hadn’t known shifters existed, but then again, he hadn’t known vampires existed either, not until he became a vampire chew toy.

He’d been walking home from work when someone had grabbed him from behind. For some reason, mind control didn’t work on him, which it should, so they’d knocked him out instead. Murrie had told him they were in Hagwall now, which was across the country from Terrena, where he’d been when he was taken.

He remembered being drugged a few weeks into his imprisonment, and when he woke up it had been in a new window-less house. Underground mansion, Murrie had called it. Mansion sounded far too luxurious for what Devin had experienced.

He didn’t know much about Hagwall other than it was a bigger city than Terrena. He didn’t leave his room unless he had to. Murrie had offered to go with him back home, be there when he met his friends and family again, but Devin didn’t have a family, and his friends…he didn’t have much in the way of friends either. They’d always moved around when he was a kid. He had no idea who his father was, and his mom was a restless soul seeking adventure and then numbing the pain of failed dreams with either alcohol or pills, or both.

He hadn’t been the picture of sane before he’d been taken, but now he froze if a shadow moved, screamed if someone touched him, and cowered if someone moved too fast. Living with shifters wasn’t ideal—they were cuddly creatures, and they always moved too fast—but living alone? Getting a job? Wincing, he slipped out of his room on tiptoes. He lived in a small room with an adjoining bathroom. All rooms on the second floor looked about the same, or so he’d been told. He hadn’t been in anyone else’s room. He believed the third floor was built the same way. It was a freaking manor house. A police station, but it looked nothing like a police station. Murrie said it was because they had to blend in.

The humans around them believed they were eccentric, wealthy humans who liked to live in a collective. The wooded area around the house was huge, so they could shift and run. After three years, Devin still had a hard time accepting the people he lived with could turn into animals.

Some days, he wondered if he was in a coma somewhere, and all of this was some weird three-year-long dream. Maybe he’d lost his mind and was living in an asylum. Maybe Murrie was his doctor.

He shook his head and slid down the stairs as soundlessly as he could, which still was like an elephant in a china shop compared to the others. Rei was a freaking jaguar shifter. One night about two years ago, Devin had gone outside in the middle of the night, needing some air, and a huge jaguar had stalked toward him in the backyard. He’d stood frozen in fear, thinking his last minute had come, and then the air had shimmered, and Rei had appeared a few feet away from him, asking if he needed anything.

Rei was his favorite person. He liked Murrie a lot too, but Murrie was loud and often reached for Devin—not to grab him, but to clap his shoulder or squeeze his arm or something. Rei never did, and he never asked how Devin felt. They could be in the same room for hours without talking and it was…restful. Rei didn’t demand anything of him. The others didn’t either. He lived rent-free in a freaking manor house, and ate their food, without paying a penny.

He should contribute.

It was something he often came back to. He’d been here for three years. The first year, he’d believed they’d eat him, especially Mars. Then once he’d realized no one ate humans—except Mars—he’d waited for them to throw him out. Now it was his third year, and he still avoided them, still kept to himself, but he was more or less convinced they’d let him stay no matter what, and he wanted to help, to repay the favor they’d done him. He didn’t know what he could do, though.

Kenia, one of the wolf shifters, joked about him being their house ghost. He guessed as far as mascots went; it wasn’t too bad. Though the way she said it made him slightly uneasy. She wasn’t mean, but she sure as hell wasn’t kind either.

He turned the corner into a kitchen bigger than any apartment he’d ever lived in and yelped. Murrie was sitting by the kitchen island with his phone in his hand. He turned bloodshot eyes Devin’s way and smiled. “Good evening.”

It took a few seconds before Devin found his voice. “Morning is closer, I think.”

Murrie sighed and nodded. “You’re right.”

He looked disheveled. He was the biggest of everyone living in the house. None of them was small. Faelan, a wolf shifter, was almost as big as Murrie, but he managed to blend in with the surroundings somehow. Hanna, another wolf shifter, was taller than he was, so apart from Kenia, he was the shortest one. Devin had been short all his life, but since he got here, he suspected he’d shrunken.

“Something wrong?” Devin stepped a little closer, careful to stay out of reach but firmly planting himself in the kitchen instead of hovering on the threshold.

“No, only…” He rubbed his forehead, looking more exhausted than Devin had ever seen him. “I’m double booked, and not once, but most of the day. I need to be here to sign for the groceries that come at seven in the morning, I have a hair appointment at three, and I need it—” He fisted his hair which was longer than he normally allowed it to get. “—since I have a f*****g charity dinner in the evening, but I have a meeting with a human detective at three too, and I can’t cancel it since it’s about a case we suspect has supernatural ties, and he can’t know, and yet I need to know what he knows, and it was the only time he was available, and argh.” He rubbed his hand over his face.

“You should get some rest.”

Murrie gave him an amused look. “I should get some rest? What about you?”

“Can’t sleep.” Murrie had forced him to see one therapist after the other, both human and non-human, but nothing helped. “Or I have been sleeping, but I woke up and now—” He cut himself off. He suspected everyone knew about his nightmares since he often woke up screaming, and they had their freaky super hearing, but he never talked about it.

All amusement fled Murrie’s face, and Devin’s stomach chose that moment to growl again.

“Eat something.”

“I was going to.” He glanced at the clock—a quarter to four in the morning. There wouldn’t be any more sleep for him this night, but he suspected Murrie hadn’t gone to bed yet. “Can I sign for the groceries?”

Murrie gave him a surprised look. “Eh…yeah, anyone in the house can, but someone has to open the gate and—” He gestured in the direction of the hallway. “—carry it inside.”

Devin nodded. “I can do it.” He could, and if it would mean Murrie could get some sleep, he would.

Murrie smiled. “Good.” It looked like he wanted to say more, but Devin turned to the refrigerator to escape.

“You should get some sleep.”

Sighing, Murrie dropped his phone. It clattered against the counter. “I need to sort my day out. I can’t sleep if I know I’m double booked, and I’m double booked.” The frantic tone made Devin smile, which wasn’t something he did often.

“Print your schedule, and I’ll have a look at it.”

Murrie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind—he had a long time ago, so he shouldn’t look surprised.

“And you can perform magic?”

Devin shrugged. He had worked as an assistant before he was abducted. Schedules and order calmed his soul, and he liked to solve problems, especially if they weren’t his problems. “I’m a schedule god.”

For a second, Murrie looked stunned, then he barked a laugh. Devin was aware he’d shocked the hell out of him for exchanging as many words as he had and offering to do something, but there was no need for loud laughter, was there? What if he woke everyone else? He glanced toward the doorway, but as far as he could tell, the house was quiet.

“Get something to eat.” Murrie got up, and Devin dove toward the cupboard with the plates so the kitchen island was between them. He didn’t believe Murrie would hurt him, but he didn’t want him touching him, and Murrie was a toucher.

When Murrie had left the room, Devin went back to the refrigerator and grabbed some eggs. As he cracked the eggs into the pan, anxiety washed over him. Should he make eggs for Murrie too? Maybe he wanted something to eat before he went to bed.

Before Murrie had returned, he had two plates filled with scrambled eggs. He grabbed some veggies to go with it.

“Oh, that smells lovely.” Murrie entered the kitchen with a printed schedule in his hand.

“I made a plate for you, too.”

The stunned look made Devin wince.

“You did?”

“Didn’t know if you were hungry, and I didn’t want to shout since everyone’s sleeping.”

Murrie nodded and grabbed a plate so fast Devin threw himself backward to get out of reach. Before he had time to recover, Murrie was shoveling food into his mouth while moaning. “They suck at cooking.”

Devin took his plate. “Who?”

“The imbeciles living in this house. We take turns to cook, and one day is worse than the other. In the beginning, I believed they did it on purpose, so I’d offer to cook every day, but it’s been years, and it doesn’t matter what they try to make. They make everything inedible.”

Staring, Devin took a bite. “You take turns?” He hadn’t known. He never ate with them, always made something for himself, preferably when they were out on a job or busy in the office, but…“Who cooks on the seventh day?” He should be cooking. If everyone was responsible for one day, he should, too. The thought had a knot forming in his gut.

“Pizza night. Though most nights are takeout nights since, again, they can’t f*****g boil pasta without either overcooking it, undercooking it, salting it too much, or not at all. We’ve had burned pasta incidents.”

Devin shook his head.

“See, I knew you’d understand.” Murrie waved his fork at him. “Shifters need to eat. Vampires too—” Devin jerked so hard he almost dropped his plate. “—but especially shifters, and yet a five-year-old would do better in the kitchen. And it’s all of them. How can it be all of them? Do I attract them, you think? A magnet for kitchen disasters.”

Devin had cooked for as long as he could remember. Since his mom hadn’t been someone he could depend on to feed him, he’d learned early on to do basic things, and it had grown from there. He wasn’t a chef by any means, but he enjoyed baking or had enjoyed it, and there were several dishes he’d mastered over the years.

Murrie pretended not to watch him, but his gaze burned.

“I…can…eh—”

“You don’t have to do anything. We swore when we took you in we wouldn’t pressure you into doing anything. Mars was most adamant.”

The kitchen spun around Devin. Objectively, he knew Mars wouldn’t hurt him, but hearing his name was enough to trigger panic attacks. He hadn’t done anything, nothing except lick his throat and try to wipe his memory. He shuddered.

No one had figured out why the mental influence didn’t work on him, and he believed Murrie had investigated it a great deal. He’d had many vampires try it to get him to relax, to get him to enjoy their bite or whatever it was they did when they influenced someone, but it never worked. Some had gotten upset; others had taken great joy in it since they knew it hurt him when they bit. Leonardo had been one of them. He enjoyed inflicting pain, and he was creative about it.

“I will do it!” He more or less shouted to prevent memories from welling up.

Murrie widened his eyes. “You will do what?

“Cook. I’ll take the seventh day. Is it breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks in between?”

“Ah…eh…snacks are overkill, though my guess is they’d be highly appreciated.”

Devin nodded. He could do snacks. “Which day is mine?” What day was it today?

“Tell you what, you take today. It’s my day, but since my schedule…I was gonna give them frozen pizza for lunch, there will be some coming with the grocery delivery, and then make chicken Alfredo they could reheat while I’m away tonight. If you take today, I’ll take Saturday.”

Saturday was the day no one cooked? He’d never noticed. “Okay.” He’d be in the kitchen, with the rest, but without Murrie. The walls were closing in. “But I won’t eat with them.”

For a second, Murrie looked like he wanted to object, but he must’ve realized what a big step it was and nodded instead. “You eat wherever you want.”

Devin gave one quick nod. “When should I have breakfast ready?”

Murrie stood, having cleared his plate a long time ago, and Devin took a step back. Instead of walking around the kitchen island to put the empty plate in the dishwasher, which Devin suspected was what he’d planned, Murrie pushed it toward him. “Hanna is usually first up. She’ll be here around seven.”

Devin nodded.

“Thank you for the food and the…” He gestured at the printed schedule. “Even if you can’t solve it, not having to think about food will be a huge help.”

He would solve it. For the first time in ages, Devin wanted to solve something, and Murrie had done so much for him.