TASTE TEST
Chapter One
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Garnet Mirren sighed deeply as another email popped up in her inbox. She ignored it for about a minute before curiosity got the better of her and she clicked, beginning to read. Yet another ‘admirer’ of her work in vampire research and yet another loser who insisted he was the real deal, a bloodsucker with fangs. Upon clicking to view the attached image she let out a deep, heartfelt groan.
Greasy black hair hung around a face that was covered in white make-up, guy liner scrawled in wonky lines around his black eyes, curtsey of contacts if the irritated redness to the whites was anything to go by, and an aura of grimy, unwashed yuck in human form.
Garnet enlarged the picture and took a closer look at the fangs he was displaying to the camera in what she was sure he thought was a seductive smile, honestly, he looked more like he had a touch of wind. Said fangs were obviously fake, not the worst she had seen but far from the best, their colour slightly off and the shape a little too long and curved, Hollywood dentistry at its worst.
Moving her fingertip over the mouse pad she hit the delete button, sending him into the bin with the other rejects.
How hard could it be to find a real vampire these days? Ridiculously hard, to tell the truth. They were so damned popular after the great reveal that everyone and his brother was going out, buying a pair of fangs and calling himself Dracula. She really wished she had never placed that ad, especially not on the internet, God knew how many perverts and idiots were out there, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Find a Vampire, get to know him, easy as anything, she had thought. What do people do when they want to find something? Google it. Maybe that hadn’t been the wisest move, but she had had a few glasses of wine by that point, so should be forgiven for that little lapse in judgement.
Oh, she realised how she sounded, like an obsessed idiot, having fantasies about bloodsuckers, but that wasn’t the case, her need to find one could literally be the difference between life or death.
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Andreas Nosos sat at his desk, watching over the milling crowd on the monitors that lined one wall. He zoomed in on one of the roulette tables, making sure the Demon that was working the wheel was doing his job properly, he was a new staff member and Andreas knew they could be tricky beings.
He flicked through several other cameras, boredom making him anxious and short tempered. Nothing ever changed, to be honest he would actually welcome the Demon causing some trouble, at least that way he would see a little action.
He leant back in his chair and flicked on his computer and as had become habit, entered the keyword of ‘Vampire’ in the search bar. He did this regularly about once a week. He liked to keep up to date with any new developments in the world of Vampire research. He knew that the elders were mostly opposed to them going public, while the younger generation, the Young Guns as the elders called them, were all for revealing themselves to the masses.
Andreas had started out with no real opinions one way or another, he had just wanted to be left alone to live his long life, keep his casino running smoothly and avoiding any nonsense. Unfortunately, a recent development had forced his hand.
His long-time friend, Cassian, had called upon him for help, telling him of unfairness and rebellion within the Council. Since he had been the one to start the damned Council in the first place, Andreas had felt he had no choice but to pull rank and deal with the idiots there.
If there was one thing he could not abide, it was people that let power and their own opinions go to their head, forcing said opinions on those around them. The Council had been created as a governing body, one that was there to protect the beings of the hidden world, but also to respect them and listen to them. The Elders had been in power for so long, that they felt it was their right to make decisions for their entire species without taking into consideration how those they governed felt. The result had been a clash between the younger generation that felt their voices and opinions were constantly ignored, and the Elders who refused to listen.
Andreas had made the long trip from the US where he was now based, to England and the home of the Council. He had arrived just in time to put a halt to the proceedings and sort out the mess that the Elders had been making in his absence.
The younger generation had made a convincing argument, bringing up points that he hated to admit he hadn’t even thought of. He had always thought he was quite up to date with modern technology but had found himself lacking.
He had begun to realise - much quicker than the other Elders, he was proud to say - that the time for hiding might well be over. With the installation of CCTV in almost every area of the world, all records and photography going digital, it was only a matter of time before curious conspiracy theorists started digging a little deeper and found their secret. It was better that they reveal themselves on their own terms and have a modicum of control over how and when that happened, than be forced into it with no preparation or PR campaign in place.
Having always prided himself on being as fair as possible, he had agreed that the reveal could happen once all precautions had been taken and safeguards were in place. He allowed this on the proviso that those who wished to remain hidden in the shadows would have a way to do so and would receive all the help they needed from the Council.
He could admit to himself now that taking such a back seat in the Council, effectively stepping away from the responsibility for so many years had done more harm than good. Andreas realised that he was woefully out of touch and had relied on Cassian to update him in the too little time they had before the meeting. One thing had been blatantly obvious, the Council was old fashioned and refused to get with the times. He had given the Elders a choice, shape up or step down. But he had also created a new branch of the Council, making it so the younger generation had representation too. The time for being ruled purely by Elders was over, now it would be equal. And as always, all decisions would be put to a vote.
So far, it was working well. He hadn’t had to return to England for anything but Cassian’s wedding, a joint affair with Avery, Nikos and his Soul Mate’s sisters. Apparently, the women had refused to do it any other way, and the men, quite liking their balls where they were, had been forced to agree and just go along with whatever plans the females cooked up.
A few months after his trip he had received an email from Cassian with a link to a YouTube channel. By the time he had watched the video it had already had millions of views, the number climbing steadily every time he refreshed the page. It had gone viral and within half a day was being shown all over the world on every news channel. They were out of hiding and everyone was clamouring to get a piece of the action.
As expected, there had been a lot of negativity, fear and religious debates about their existence, but along with it had come a rather large wave of support that was growing by the day.
The negative aspects had been bad, very bad, with reports coming in almost nightly of Vampires and Shifters being attacked, some even killed, and subjected to torrents of abuse and threats.
The positive side had been greatly helped buy Nikos’s mate, Tanzanite. She had used all of her journalistic skills and connections to make sure that the first information people had found about them, once the video had been uploaded, was from her, and she had done amazingly well in showing the truth of their existence.
And thankfully, so far, the good had just about managed to outweigh the bad.
As he had been thinking, Andreas had been idly scanning the search results, ignoring all the usual media sources and adverts for Anti-Vampire protection, canister of sprayable Garlic, and Shifter-proof home security devices, and had come to rest on an advert on a social networking site. Out of pure curiosity, he clicked on the link and began to read.
The ad had been posted by a woman who was apparently searching for a Vampire. Not a big shocker there, the internet was full of depressed looking goth girls who all had this romantic notion of Vampires. They all claimed they wanted to be their undead brides for eternity. He snorted at the thought, eternity was an awfully long time, as Andreas himself could attest to, far too long to be saddled with a miserable female in need of a facial and a haircut.
He scanned the words of her advert, noting that she did not seem like a desperate fan girl who had read one too many books or watched a few too many TV shows. She appeared to be a well-educated woman who had few illusions of their kind. She seemed to have done her research well and he found himself to be intrigued to read more. Something that felt slightly like excitement bloomed in his chest, but he pushed it away, dismissing it.
He hurriedly read the rest of the advert. She had not given much information, keeping her requests vague, just saying that she needed to find a real vampire and to please contact her if you had any information. He glanced at the date the ad was placed and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was dated over a year ago, meaning it had been uploaded before their reveal. Intrigued he clicked on the link to her personal page, bracing himself for yet another pale skinned, black haired, dark eyed, pierced in a thousand places female that wanted to be bitten in places that should remain hidden in polite company.
His mouth dropped open in surprise and appreciation, something that hadn’t happened since the time movies had first been produced in colour and he had seen a sunrise for the first time in a millennium.
The girl from the advert was beautiful, stunning in fact. Her hair was a pale blonde, so pale it looked almost white and eyes as blue as the sky, framed by delicate glasses that, rather than obscure her features, seemed to enhance them. A light sprinkling of freckles danced across her pert little nose, giving her a slightly innocent, childlike air. But there was nothing childlike about her body, the photo was taken on what looked to be a warm summer day, her hair blowing softly in the breeze, which moulded her skirt to her legs where she leaned against a tree trunk, smiling brightly at whomever was taking the picture. She looked happy and relaxed, the sunlight highlighting her delicate, almost elfin like features.
He felt an odd twist in his stomach and the uncharacteristic thought popped into his head that he wished he could be the one to make someone smile like that, more specifically, make her smile like that. He shook his head at the rogue feeling, he had never been one to wallow in self-pity, torturing himself with all the things he was now denied, well, not for a long time anyway.
He dragged his eyes away from the picture and forced himself to focus on the information she had given. It was not as detailed as he would have liked, although he had a feeling that no amount of information would be enough to satisfy his hunger for knowledge of her.
She apparently lived in Oxford and had spent the majority of her still rather young life, she was 26, studying classic literature and the English language. Her first place of work was listed as a school where she had obviously taught her favourite subject but had apparently left there some three years ago and now her only work seemed to be linked to a place called Athena’s Academy.
He opened a new tab and looked up the place, finding it to be a kind of learning centre for the weird and wonderful. Maybe that was why she was looking for a Vampire. If the place, or indeed the female, had any kind of credibility, Tanzanite was sure to know. He sent her a quick email with a link to the woman’s account and a request for any information on her or the validity of her organisation.
He promised himself that he wouldn’t do anything until he heard back from the Shifter’s mate, forcing himself to return to his internet search and other tasks of the night that required his attention, managing to keep himself occupied for a number of hours before it was time for him to shut down his computer and actually leave his office, something he always put off.
He clicked his way through the open tabs, intending to save her link and then leave it alone, though of course, that did not happen. Not sure why he was doing it, but unable to resist, he clicked on the button to make a new account and quickly joined the site, not bothering with a picture, telling himself that all he would be doing was keeping an eye on her.