Embrace the Heat (2 page)

When Simon heard the approaching footsteps
stop in front of him, he refused to look up. He just hoped it
wasn’t Connor. Con was like a brother to him, but he always wanted
to talk about things. Simon didn’t want to talk about what he did
with his clients, especially one in particular. He wanted to
pretend things didn’t happen.

“I considered scarring your face many years
ago,” Eloise said. He loved Eloise like a mother, and she’d pretty
much raised him. In truth, she was Connor’s mother, but she’d taken
him in when no one else would. Eloise had whored herself to keep
him fed when he’d been too young to whore himself. She also
understood some of what he went through. She didn’t know it all. He
was far too ashamed to let her know all of it. Still, she knew what
it felt like to be the obsession of human scum.

Eloise was lovely, with a delicate bone
structure and silky brown hair. Her eyes were the deepest blue he’d
ever seen. Men had offered to buy her outright, but the owner of
the reservation would never let that happen. She made far too much
money for him.

“Why didn’t you scar my face?” he finally
asked. “It might have been the kindest thing to do.”

“It would have made things worse,” she
explained and then sat beside him and inhaled. “I love the smell of
clean laundry. I never appreciated it when I was human.”

Simon smiled at her. He loved it when they
shared something good. “How could it have been worse? If I’m ugly,
the humans won’t want me.”

“You could never be ugly, Simon,” she said
gently. “You would still attract attention. With the scars, I was
afraid that you’d attract the sadists. They already request you,
but your looks are too valuable to risk having any damage done to
you.”

He just nodded because she was probably
right. There was no escaping the horrors he faced each day. The
most he could do was trade it for a different horror. “You didn’t
come looking for me because you wanted to talk, did you?”

He looked up, and her sad smile said it all.
“There’s a request for you,” she said softly.

Simon hated seeing the sadness in Eloise’s
eyes. This was harder for her than it was for him in many ways.
She’d done her best to protect him since the day she’d found him
wandering around the reservation crying. He’d been three at the
time, but he remembered that day. His mom had come home from a
client with blood gushing from a gash on her forehead. He’d known
it was a bad injury. She’d held him in her arms as she sang to him,
and then he’d felt the stillness. She’d looked so peaceful and
beautiful, even with the blood matted in her blonde hair. Everyone
said he looked like her. Her name had been Cora, but the bastard
humans had called her Angel.

Eloise took him in and he wasn’t the only
one. Eloise cared for six children. Only one of those children was
her own. Simon loved her and wished he could find a way to protect
her.

“Don’t be sad,” he said. “They don’t hurt
me.”

“Just because they don’t beat you, doesn’t
mean they don’t hurt you,” she said.

What could he say? Nothing, so he just walked
away. He walked past the rundown little shacks the vampires lived
in. He walked into the section of the reservation with the
fountains and beautifully manicured lawns. Surrounding him were
cute little cottages. Each one was lavishly furnished and
comfortably warm. Without a word, a guard grabbed his arm and led
him to the VIP section. Simon’s stomach knotted with dread. He only
had one client who met with him in this area. That client was the
owner of this hell hole’s son. This was the thing that made him
want to scar his own face.

The human didn’t look evil on the surface. In
truth, he was very plain, thin with brown hair and brown eyes. His
features were unremarkable, and he was a couple of inches shorter
than Simon.

When Simon entered the room, the human
greeted him with a bright smile. “Simon,” he murmured and spread
his arms wide.

Simon forced himself to move forward into the
bastard’s embrace. The human hugged him and stroked his hair. “My
beautiful Simon. Have you missed me?”

“Yes,” Simon said numbly just the way he’d
been trained. It had been over a month since the last time and he’d
hoped never to see this human again. He’d hoped never to relive
this nightmare. Even knowing it was wrong, he’d hoped the human had
found another favorite. No one made him hate himself more than the
human standing before him.

“Look what I brought you today,” the human
said and gestured to the female vampire kneeling naked on the
floor. Her head bowed, she didn’t look up at them. “Isn’t she
pretty?” he asked.

Simon nodded and wondered if he’d end up
being sick to his stomach. This was the worst kind of torture for
him. This was the stuff he could never tell anyone about. “Please
don’t make me do this,” he said. It was the first time he’d ever
said the words out loud. This had been his nightmare for well over
two years, but he’d never had the courage to say those words
before.

“What did you say?” the human asked through
his teeth.

“Please just let her leave,” he said and met
the human’s eyes. “I’ll do whatever you ask, just let her go.”

The human walked over and grabbed the female
by her long red hair. She was one of the few vampires with longer
hair. The only reason any vampire had long hair was that humans
wanted it long. The human jerked her head back roughly until she
cried out. “Come over here, unzip your pants, and take what I have
so generously offered you,” the human said calmly.

“Please just do it,” the female pleaded.
“Just get it over with.”

The human backhanded her. His ring cut into
the side of her face. Droplets of blood trickled from the cut,
contrasting vividly with her pale skin. “Shut the fuck up! I tell
you when you can talk.”

“Don’t hit her!” Simon yelled. He wasn’t sure
where his courage had suddenly come from. Maybe he really was at
the end of his rope. Maybe this was part of some death wish.

The human pushed the female down onto the
floor and stalked toward Simon. It wasn’t his physical presence
that frightened Simon. He was a weak looking man with very little
muscle tone. What frightened Simon about this man was what he could
accomplish with a word. This man’s power and sick obsession with
Simon were terrifying.

The human smiled. “You don’t like her?”

Simon didn’t answer.

“That’s fine,” the human said with a genial
smile. “I’ll have her pleasure me instead.”

Simon looked at the poor female on the floor.
She hadn’t moved. She looked too terrified to move or speak. Her
cheek pressed against the cold floor, and her eyes focused on
Simon.

The door opened, and a tiny girl who looked
to be about six started to enter with a big stack of laundry. When
she noticed the room was in use, she panicked and dropped the
laundry. Her eyes were wide with fear.

“I didn’t know anyone was in here,” she said,
nearly in tears. “Sorry.”

When she started to leave, the human called
out to her, “Don’t move. Come in and close the door.”

With shaky hands, the girl came into the
room. She didn’t make eye contact with any of them, just stared at
her tiny bare feet.

“After that whore finishes sucking me off,
I’ll have this little blood brat chained down and hold a fucking
knife to her throat while she sucks your cock. How does that
sound?”

Simon’s eyes widened in alarm. “You can’t!
They don’t let you use the children like that.”

“My father owns this place and everyone
here,” he said with a satisfied smile. “I can do whatever the fuck
I want to any of you.”

“Please don’t,” Simon said with his head
bowed. “I’ll do what you say.”

A slow evil smile spread across the human’s
face. “That’s much better. What do you have to say to me?”

Simon nearly choked on the words. “Thank you
for bringing me this gift.”

In that moment, Simon swore he would see this
human dead someday. He would see all of the humans who used his
kind dead.

Sixty Six Years Later

Layla was so excited! Today she was going to
see her mom. It’s not that she wasn’t happy living with Raven.
Actually, living with Raven was better than living with her mom.
Raven spent time with her and never forgot her anywhere. Well,
Layla had to stay with sitters a lot because Raven worked, but the
sitters were nice, and Raven was there to tuck her in every
night.

“Ready to go?” Danny called from the door to
the room. Danny was her age but already a lot taller than her.
Layla hated being shorter than everyone, but at least she was
stronger than most of them, even Danny. Sometimes they pretended to
train like Raven; Layla usually won.

“Yes!” Layla squealed and spun around in
circles. Her blonde hair swung out behind her. That’s when she
caught the worried look in Danny’s green eyes. Freezing
mid spin, Layla glared at her friend. “You don’t think she’s
coming, do you?”

Danny cringed, his cheeks flushed a shade
nearly as deep as his dark red hair. “I hate seeing you get so
excited when she might not be there.”

“It’s our birthday,” Layla said extra slowly.
“I’m turning seven, and she’s turning twenty seven. She
has
to be there. Moms don’t miss birthdays.”

Danny ducked his head, and Layla instantly
felt bad. Danny didn’t really know when his birthday was. Raven had
made up a day, but his mom didn’t celebrate his birth. Danny’s
father had been killed years ago, and his mom was strange. She’d
take Danny places and leave him there. That’s why Danny was at
Raven’s now. His mom had told him to sit and wait while she got
supplies. When it got dark, he’d walked to Raven’s house. He knew
his way home now, but he was always a little angry and embarrassed
when his mom forgot him. She didn’t do it on purpose. Raven said
something was broken in Danny’s mom, and Layla had to agree.

“Sorry for opening my big mouth,” Layla said
and hugged her friend.

Danny tried to squirm away. He thought girls
were gross. “Stop hugging me, Layla! It’s okay. You’re right; moms
should be there for birthdays. I’ll bet you won’t forget your kids’
birthdays when you’re a mom.”

Layla couldn’t even imagine wanting to be a
mom. Life sucked too much. They were stuck on the island and
weren’t even allowed near the water for fear of being killed. Who
would want to bring a kid into this world? Besides, she was never
kissing a boy. “There is no way I’m going to be a mom. Do you even
know how babies are made?”

Danny grinned at her. “Sure I do. Do
you
know how babies are made?”

“Sure, boys kiss girls on the mouth,” Layla
explained.

Danny laughed at her. “That’s not how it
happens. Well, there’s usually kissing at first. Sometimes the man
puts his thing in the woman’s .”

“Danny!” Raven called from the kitchen. Raven
was making peach pie for Layla. Luckily Layla’s birthday was in
spring or she might not have a sweet treat. They canned fruit for
the winter, but they didn’t use it for anything frivolous. Winter
was a time to save up their food for emergencies. During the
spring, Raven could get a jar of peaches without causing too many
problems. Raven was a wood nymph, and she helped their crops grow
strong. She was also the only nonhuman living on the island, making
her an outcast to most.

“What?” Danny called back. “She’s gonna have
to learn how babies are made, especially if she doesn’t want to
have one.”

“I don’t want to know where you got your
information,” Raven said sternly as she walked into the room. Her
long brown hair was pulled back from her face. “Layla will learn
how babies are made when she’s older. You and I are definitely
going to talk about this later.”

Danny gave Raven a sheepish smile. “Did I get
it wrong?”

Raven laughed. “No, you got it right. I just
want you to tell me where you learned that from. Something tells me
you were spying on people again.”

Layla stuck her tongue out at Danny, and he
made a rude gesture with his middle finger. “I know what that
means,” she said.

“Good,” he said back, “then I’m not wasting
my time.”

“Both of you behave,” Raven warned, and then
she smiled at Layla. “Have you decided what you want for your
birthday?”

Layla thought for a moment and said the only
thing she could think of. “I wish you were my real sister.”

“I wish I was too. Let’s go see your mom,”
Raven said and held out her hand.

Layla gripped her hand, and Danny took hold
of Layla’s other hand. The gentle squeeze from Danny made her
nervous.

Three hours later, Danny was still holding
Layla’s hand. Now, Layla was leaning into Raven’s side so people
passing by wouldn’t see her cry. She didn’t want them to see that
her mother’s failure to show up hurt.

In the two weeks following her birthday,
Layla kept expecting her mom to show up with some excuse, but she
never did. Raven asked around and from what she could find, two
days before Layla’s birthday, her mother vanished without a trace.
Nothing was taken from her home. All of her clothes were still
there; making it seem like her mother had just disappeared into
thin air.

Twenty Years Later

Simon hated being late to meetings, and he
was pretty sure Connor was going to be pissy today. Connor was the
leader of their vampire settlement, and he’d been ordered to travel
to the head of the vampire government, Fangri La, for some big
meeting. Connor hated going to those meetings, and now he was
forced to bring his mate, Raven along. As a wood nymph, Raven
didn’t travel or handle big city life very well.

So, it was a given that Connor wasn’t going
to be happy regardless of what time Simon showed up. Unfortunately,
Simon had needed to extract a very determined wood nymph from his
bed. Narissa had managed to slip into his home while he was
showering and tried to convince him to stick around for sex. He’d
been forced to escort her all the way to the front gate while she
insisted on staying to help him relax after the meeting.