The Night at Renegade
Ben
Thenightwascrispas I exited the music-filled room. I looked back to the club's doors. The party was still pumping, music loud and thumping, with swarms of men grinding into each other. The Renegade had been around for generations, in one form or another, and was a part of the Walden coven.
Of course, the humans had no idea a coven of vampires owned the club. Hell, humans had no idea that the paranormal really existed, and we preferred it that way. The club was the perfect feeding ground to pick up a willing body for the night, satisfying our carnal desires and our hunger for blood.
I heard a voice call out to me, "Ben, off for the night?"
I turned to see Basil Paladorus, my boss, and the head enforcer of the coven. Basil was one of the strongest vampires I had ever come across. He was six foot three, and two hundred and forty pounds of muscle. He had short, dark hair, hazel eyes, and a killer smile. But it was his ass that was his best quality. He hadan ass that would drive a saint to sin; a perfect tight butt that I was sure you could bounce a quarter off of.
As sexy as he was, he was firmly in the "do not touch" category. I had a strict "don't eat where you shit" policy. That meant I kept all my relationships outside my coven. Not that I would call anything I had relationships. I had sex partners, and it was easier to keep that uncomplicated. Mostly, I kept to the humans I picked up at the club and the occasional paranormal that would visit our territory.
"Yes, I was just heading home," I said.
He smirked. "I would have thought for sure you would have joined Devin and the Travis twins."
"Not tonight. They’re all Devin's." I paused and smirked back. "And yours."
I was hungry, but the thought of feeding from the Travis twins didn’t appeal to me, and that was odd for me. I’d had them before, and some of my best memories were of me feeding from them and enjoying their bodies all night. Lately, though, I’ve just felt off. I had even started eating blood from a bag. It was only a week, but I could already feel the effects of not feeding directly from the source. I’d become weaker and more tired. Hopefully, whatever this funk was, it would be over soon.
"You okay?" Basil asked, looking at me with concern.
"Yeah, just not feeling it tonight. Did you need something?" I asked, ready to go home, warm some blood, and get some sleep.
He looked at me for a moment before saying, "Are you sure you're okay? I can always get another enforcer."
Even though I was tired and not feeling a hundred percent, I was still an enforcer, a guardian of the coven and responsible for executing the rules. Kind of like a cop who policed the vampires and other approved paranormals in our territory. If my coven needed me, I was there to help. The coven had given me a home when I had no home, and I would defend it with my last breath.
"I'm fine. What did you need?" I told him.
"Raul called. He and another sentry said they detected an unannounced paranormal in our territory. I normally would have Carson investigate, but he's actually on a date with a human," he said with a grimace.
I understood the grimace. It wasn't the fact that he was dating a human, it was that the human wasn't his beloved.
Every vampire had a beloved, or as the humans, or shifters called them, soulmates. This person to a vampire is someone whose blood is their perfect match. It calls to them like no other. Fate brought the couple together and bound their life forces. That way, if that person was human, they would live as long as the vampire. As it was, Carson may be facing heartbreak, watching the human grow older and die.
I was so focused on the fact Carson was dating a human who was not his beloved, that it took me a moment to grasp what Basil had said. Having an unannounced paranormal in our territory was not a good thing. Paranormals as a whole lived in groups. They could be covens, packs, clutches; all depending on the type of paranormal. Each group has its own territory, and no paranormal was permitted to enter another paranormal’s territory without first announcing themselves to the group's leader and gaining their permission to enter. Not to gain permission of the territory leader was an extreme offense, which could, in some instances, be punishable by death. All paranormals knew this rule. Those who didn’t follow it were usually rogues: paranormals who had no coven or pack. They didn’t obey the rules and were usually there to cause trouble.
"I can go check it out," I told Basil.
"Great! Here is the address of the last sighting. I instructed the sentries to be on the lookout. I’ll tell them you will contact them when you get there," he said, eyeing the doors to the club.
I nodded. "Go. Enjoy yourself. I've got this handled."
He grinned, waggled his eyebrows, and turned toward the club, waving. "Thanks, I owe you!"
I shook my head at his antics and turned toward the parking lot. I walked down the row of cars, reaching into my pocket to grasp the key fob and pull it out. I pushed the button on the fob, and the lights of my new, 2020 Mercedes-Benz GT-Class flashed, illuminating the midnight-blue exterior. I ran my hand along its sleek hood as I made my way to open the door. I loved this car. It was a gift to myself for my hundred and third birthday.
I grabbed the door handle and opened the door to slide into the seat. The soft leather cradled my slender frame. I was smaller than most enforcers, standing at only five-ten, with a medium build, while most enforcers stood over six feet and had large muscular frames, like that of Basil. This didn't mean I couldn't hold my own. I worked hard and fought to reach the position I now held.
I reached over and pushed the ignition button, and the engine roared to life. I smiled as I felt the rumble beneath me; I reached up, adjusting my rearview mirror. The lights on the dash lit up, and the center console came to life. I input the address that Basil had given me into the GPS.
Walden was a pleasant city, with only approximately a hundred thousand residents. It was in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which surrounded the area. While most areas of the city were nice and built up, we still had a rougher part, and that's where this address was.
My mind wandered to the fact that I hadn't fed from a vein in a week, and that meant I hadn't had sex in that time. Feeding for a vampire went hand in hand with sex. The vampire bite would increase the pleasure of the one we were taking blood from, and the taste of the blood while fucking a warm body was bliss to the vampire. It was a win-win, and I couldn't understand why itdidn't hold the same appeal for me. I ran my hand through my shoulder-length blond hair and sighed.
Maybe I should call Master Stephen, the leader of my coven. Stephen was more like my father. He had taken me in and raised me when rogues destroyed my family and coven. He was centuries older than me, and he may have had a hint as to why feeding and sex had lost their appeal.
