CHAPTER ONE-1
CHAPTER ONEBLESSED MOTHER GIVE me strength not to put my foot in this woman’s... Kissera didn’t bother to finish the thought. The Blessed Mother had stopped listening to her centuries ago. Instead of committing violence against her human, Kissera grumbled while she organized items from the last shipment by dollar value. August meant the end of long nights selling over-priced tchotchkes to vacationing vampires. As Relic's owner and Head b***h In Charge, she belonged upstairs helping a new vamp select the perfect turning gift for a lairmate, not wasting precious nighttime hours in the basement with a human. HBICs didn't do grunt work.
Windowless and walled with stones old as New York itself, Kissera spent as little time in the bowels of Relics as possible. The sterile, fluorescent ceiling lights couldn't mask dark shadows hovering at the edge of her senses. Creepy.
“Angela,” Kissera said, whacking the crate next to her human with a hard slap, “what's the next item? We have to finish this by dawn.”
Angela ignored her, choosing instead to pore over the packing slip with deliberate, painstaking accuracy.
“I know you'd rather be somewhere else. Me too.”
“Shove it, Kay,” Angela said. She threw a stack of papers on the floor, careless of how they fell.
“Godsdammit,” Kissera muttered. Angela had some nerve calling her by her nickname like everything was normal and they hadn't been fussing at each other all night. “That was uncalled for. What's got you so rattled?”
“You said you'd give me an answer this week.”
“What was the question again?” It was hard to keep up with all of Angela's recent demands. Every night brought a new problem.
“Releasing me as your companion.” She stood, hands on hips, no nonsense face on.
“Oh, not this again.” Kissera cringed inside. She turned away to straighten up a stack of boxes. The storage room was a mess.
“You forgot, didn't you?” Angela's voice was full of unspoken accusation.
Kissera faced Angela with what she hoped was an apologetic look. She hadn't meant to forget. Had it been a week already?
“I'll be thirty-three tomorrow. You promised you'd have an answer by then. Have you even spoken to the council?”
“You know how going over there creeps me out. It's too close to the big hole in the ground.”
Angela sucked her teeth. “You're the most powerful vampire in Manhattan and you're scared of a hole. It's pathetic.” She stormed out the basement and up into the main show room.
In a blink, Kissera was behind her. “Spoken like a gods damned human.” To a human, it looked like she had a lot of power. She had a stable territory, a thriving business, and best of all, no enemies. Everything was perfect. Until last week when Angela asked to leave her.
“Puta.”
“I heard that.”
“Good. Take a good, long listen to this.” Angela slammed the shop door. The bell overhead jangled with misplaced cheer.
***
