Bound in Darkness (Misplaced Halos Book 3) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,4
here, at least the echo of pain he felt in his chest whenever Acadia fed another male was bearable. When he was at Angel Central, it was brutal. Sometimes he thought she did it on purpose, choosing the exact moment of his arrival to open a vein to one of those greedy angels.
Not that he blamed her. Kaj had taken to feeding from other females because he had no choice. Problem was, he was going to have to increase his volume. As it was, he was skipping a couple of days, and in order to be in top fighting form, he needed to feed daily. If he’d had a female vampire nearby, he would’ve opted to feed from her so Acadia didn’t think he was trying to rub it in her face. That was absolutely not his intention. In fact, feeding in general had become an exercise in futility, something he wished wasn’t a requirement to his mere existence.
But he couldn’t avoid the place forever. They had too much shit to do for him to be hiding out from a female.
“I’ll find him,” Kaj told the male. “I need to check in with Bijou, anyway.” He peered down the table. “What’s the word on the security?”
“I’m finishing up the controls for the cameras,” Blāz noted. “We’ve got ’em installed, just need to sync, then I’ll work with Reidar to get everything tied together. They’ve given us access to their exterior feeds already.”
“Great.”
“I’m telling you … those boys know what they’re doing.” Blāz spoke around a mouthful. “Can’t say I’m not a little jealous.” He smiled as he took a gulp of orange juice. “I wanna be them when I grow up.”
The comment reminded him of Michael’s request that they vow their loyalty to the angels, which Kaj took to mean Michael wanted them to align their objectives, essentially work for them. As easy as he wanted to say that would be, Kaj couldn’t simply offer up an oh, sure, of course. He was, after all, the most powerful vampire, the one on the throne, so to speak. He had to take into consideration his entire race, not just a handful who would benefit most from a consolidation of strength.
Would those who trusted their Alpha to make smart decisions want him to pledge his allegiance to a faction of warrior angels? Probably not. The vampires were a very proud species. Rightfully so. They’d been placed on Earth to protect the human race, and they took their responsibilities seriously. Even the civilian vampires implanted in human communities had duties, whether it was contacting the tip line with sightings of demons or merely observing human behaviors that were conducive to luring demons to them. They were all playing a part.
Were the humans grateful? Of course not.
Hell, it took tremendous effort these days just to keep themselves hidden from Homo sapiens, one of the many rules laid out by the Almighty. And what did they get for their efforts? The fucking humans found it amusing to dress up like some creepy caped crusader with fangs and call it a vampire. As if.
“Hey, Kaj? You good?”
Realizing he was standing at the table, he shook himself out of his wayward thoughts and nodded to Blāz. “I’ll be back. Holler if you need me.”
Rather than step outside and poof his ass over to the mansion, Kaj opted to walk via the underground tunnels that wound through the mountain connecting Angel Central to the Lair. The tunnels had been dug out back when the angels had started building their new fortress many moons ago. Though they’d all but abandoned the house Kaj and his crew now occupied, the tunnels had been maintained. The smooth concrete walls and floor did their job of holding back the earth, as well as concealing the titanium used to keep vampires and other supernatural creatures from popping in uninvited. While that was a nice security measure, it made getting out impossible, so once they started on the one-mile trek, they were pretty much relegated to the stroll. But they had the motion-activated gas torches along the walls to keep them company and provide light for those who didn’t have the benefit of seeing in the dark.
Every few feet, a gas torch would come to life, brightening the path before another flared with a slight hiss. Kaj continued with one foot in front of the other, breathing in and out in an attempt to clear his head before he saw his daughter.