Chapter 13

Erick

I decided to wear black dress pants and a jacket with a crisp white shirt underneath. Today, we were going to the inauguration of my new blood bank in Moosonee, Ontario. The main press release already took place this afternoon. Now, it would be followed by a tasting ceremony just for vampires. This day, our subjects would see me and Alina together for the first time after the announcement of the wedding.
We already had blood banks in Ontario located in Ottawa and Toronto. However, supplying blood to all vampires in the north was becoming a problem, so we opened another bank for easy supply. It reduced chances of suspicion, too. Now, we didn’t have to explain to the government why gallons of blood were being transferred across the state to specifically those two blood banks when there was no emergency.
A knock sounded at my door. “Come in.”
Kendrick, my chauffeur for today and the chief of my security, entered the room in his usual black pants, shirt, and leather jacket attire. “Sire, we’re ready to depart.”
“Come on then.” I picked up the box Mom had prepared for Alina. “We’re good to go.”
“Oh, and Kendrick?” He turned back to look at me at the doorway. “Stay close to us, especially Alina. I may have to leave her for a couple minutes, but make sure you stay with her at all times. I don’t want any other vampires getting too close to her other than my family.”
“Yes, sire.” Bowing, he went on ahead of me. He was human, and people might think he was not strong enough to take on a vampire. If anyone thought that, they were nothing more than insolent fools. He would never let anyone get close to Alina for the rest of the night.
Somehow, I totally wasn’t looking forward to this inauguration. I had a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong. I just hoped that I was wrong this time.

Alina

“Good work, Ryan and Alina.” The chief editor looked over our report. “This’ll do perfectly fine. I’ll set it up for page fifteen on the top left corner. You got nice pictures here. The night view makes it look romantic.”
“Thank you, Mr. Browning.” I smiled politely as he dismissed us, and we walked out of the room.
“Nice work there. Didn’t think you’d be able to make it by lunch,” Ryan commented. “You look really worn out.”
“Yeah, just a bit stressed out, that’s all.” Sure, that excuse works like a charm every time you use it.
Good work, Alina. Sarcasm will get you everywhere.
I snapped my head up and looked around. “Where on Earth are you now?” I muttered under my breath.
“Huh? Where’s who?” Ryan followed my gaze, confused.
“Nothing. I—”
“Alina!” Chloe, the redhead next to my cabin whom Erick had threatened to feed from, came bouncing on her heels. “There’s this hottie sitting in your cabin waiting for you. Nice catch!”
“Right.” I laughed awkwardly. If only she knew. “Thanks for telling me, Chloe. I’ll be going now.”
“Going where?” Ryan asked. “I thought we were having lunch together.”
Crap. I forgot all about that. “I’m really sorry, Ryan, but I have to go.” I apologized while thinking of a quick excuse. “It’s a family event, and I really need to be there.”
“No, it’s okay. I understand.” Ryan reassured me as he walked me to my cabin door. “Go on now, and have a good time. You deserve it.”
“Thanks.” I said goodbye to Ryan and entered my cabin. “What now?”
“Mom asked me to get that to you too.” He pointed to a box wrapped in some black wrapping paper on my table while he sat on my chair. “It’s a dress for the event.”
“What event?” I placed my hands on my hips. “When on Earth are you going to tell me what is so important that I have to just up and leave my office at this time?”
“You’ll find out when we get there, but before we do, we’ll be stopping by at the hospital,” Erick said, tapping away at his phone.
“We’re going to see Papa?” I asked as a small smile formed on my lips.
“Yes, now change,” he ordered while still on his phone.
“I can’t yet. The washroom here’s too small, and it won’t be appropriate to change in the hospital,” I said.
“Then change here,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s lunch time. The place is pretty deserted by now.”
“What! Erick tha—”
“If you keep wasting my time, I’ll be the one changing you, and I’m pretty sure you won’t like that.” The brat! Why on Earth did God even create such an atrocious bastard!
“Thank you for the compliment. Now...” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Get out!” I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him the meanest glare I could muster.
“Fine.” He sighed audibly, but he did finally get his ass off my chair and moved out the door. “I’ll wait outside.”
Groaning, I went and stood right in front of the door and locked it, so that no one could come in and see me change, and took out the dress from the box.
It was gorgeous, of course. I couldn’t expect anything less than perfection when the Vampire Queen was choosing my dress. It was a champagne coloured knee-length dress, and was off-shoulder and body hugging. Yet it didn’t look slutty at all. I only hoped it would look good on me.
I took off my dress from earlier while keeping my eyes on the door at all times and quickly donned the new one. It fit perfectly.
“Done?” Erick came in exactly at that instant.
“Yeah.” I shoved my dress into the box and got my bag from the back of my chair. “Let’s go.”
“Wait!” He grabbed my arm before I could leave the room. I looked up at him questioningly, but instead of answering, he pulled my hair out of the messy bun and straightened it out with his fingers. “Now it’s done.”
I stared at him for the sudden behaviour while Erick smoothed down his jacket. “Let’s go.” He offered me his hand.
Nodding, I placed my hand in his and let him guide me out to God knows what he had planned ahead.