2 Vampires, Warlocks, And Exes (Pixie Dust Chronicles 2)

“How did you meet?” I replied.

“Maria and I met in one of my clubs…in the early 1980’s.”

“And?”

“And what?” he countered.

I rolled my eyes. “Leo, please don’t make me work for this,” I pleaded. “It’s pretty obvious you don’t enjoy discussing it, but I need to know.”

He steepled his fingers. “Very well, my love. But you have to promise to keep in mind that I was a very different man back then.”

I gave him my best impression of a Boy Scout salute. “I swear.”

He sighed again. “Maria was young and bored since Vance often worked nights and left her home alone. She frequented my club often. When I realized who she was, I made it a point to get to know her better.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because Vance, with his personal vendetta, made some of my business partners very angry. It was my opportunity to make them happy.”

Vance only had one vendetta from his past that I knew of. The mob guys who’d killed his parents. “You mean the mafia?” I shrieked. “You were in the mafia?”

“No, I was not,” he replied. “But we did have a working arrangement for quite some time building hotels.”

I exhaled. “Wow. So, what was the point in getting to know Maria? To break up their marriage?”

“No, it was more to expose her behavior to keep him distracted. I have no doubt that their marriage would have ended sooner or later. I just sped it up.”

“By making her a vampire?”

He shook his head. “No, I did not do that until several months later. We had an affair while she was human.”

“So you are her maker?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes, unfortunately.”

“Wait a minute, let’s back up. You said earlier that you were trying to expose her behavior. What did you mean by that?”

“Maria was obsessed with immortality,” he explained. “She did not want to grow old and with each passing birthday she became more desperate. She became a vampire groupie of sorts. She offered her neck to any vampire who would take it, male or female. She was quite promiscuous but very good at hiding it from Vance.” He scoffed. “He thought she was his perfect little human.”

“But he eventually found out?”

“Yes. She was careful at first, only agreeing to meet with me privately when she knew he would be deeply involved in a case. I tried to arrange several chance encounters, but she wriggled out of every one of them. Over time, she believed that I had developed feelings for her…that I wanted to be with her forever.”

“Did you?”

“No. Back then, I lied, cheated, stole… did whatever I had to do to get what I wanted. I figured it was the only way to make her drop her guard.”

“And what exactly did you get out of this arrangement?” I asked. “Besides happy business partners?”

He smiled. “Karli, above all else, I am a man. Her beauty pales in comparison to yours, but she is beautiful nonetheless. I had some pretty…gratifying times with her.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh! Way too much information!”

He shrugged. “You asked. I answered.”

I glared at him. “So, how did he find out what a slutbag she was?”

“She eventually let her guard down when she felt that I would honor my agreement to make her a vampire. I fabricated a reason for him to come to the club one night…I told him my partners and I wanted to make a deal with him. He walked in on us having sex in my office.”