Wicked Matrimony (Legends and Lovers)

After introductions, I lead Allison out of the reception area, further into the building.

“What is this place? It looks like a doctor’s office.”

“It’s kind of like that. In a sense.”

“Do you heal people here?” she asks.

“No.” I smirk. “I’ve never thought of making that into a business.”

Allison squeezes my hand. “You should.”

We move through the office, and Viggo meets us at the end of the long hallway. “Hello there.” He holds out his hand to Allison, and when she places hers inside his, he brings it up to kiss it, but I know he’s really smelling her sweet blood.

“How’s business today?” I ask. Viggo’s been my business partner for as long as I can remember.

“It’s fantastic. Are you here to show Allison the lab?”

I nod. “Yep, sure am.”

Allison stares at me. “Lab?”

Viggo presses his palm to a security panel beside the metal door, and we enter the area where humans aren’t allowed. In the waiting room outside the lab, I explain my business to Allison.

“In this new age, where DNA tests are readily available and there’s a security camera on every corner, when somebody goes missing, people take notice. There’s roughly a million vampires on the earth today.”

Allison gasps. “That many?”

Viggo laughs lightly at her reaction. “That’s the number of vampires we know about through the census.”

“There’s probably many more we don’t know about,” I say. “If all of these vampires start killing people daily for food, the population would definitely take notice.”

“I would think so,” Allison says. “So what do you do here?”

“I’m in the business of selling blood.”

“Selling blood? How?” Her eyes widen. “Oh my god, like a human farm?” She steps back.

I step forward, reaching out my hand. “It’s not as bad as you think. The humans get paid very well, and they think they’re just giving a sample of blood to medical testing. No one gets hurt by this.”

Viggo steps closer. “Except for the occasional fainter if they stand up too fast after giving blood.”

“Can I see this farm?”

I open the door at the far end of the room and lead her into the lab where the blood is collected from vials and put into glass wine bottles for distribution.

She hugs her body because of the low temperature of the lab.

“So, people sign in, get their blood taken, and leave with a check because they think they’re helping with some medical study? You then take their blood, bottle it up, and sell it to the vampire community?” She stares at the machines that run the bottles of blood on a conveyor belt to package in boxes.

“That’s the gist of it.” I step closer. “I’m not the only vampire in the world who does this. I’m just the most successful.”

“It’s our secret ingredient that has people coming back for more,” Viggo says.

“What’s your secret ingredient?”

“A drop of lamb’s blood.”

Allison twists her face in disgust when I tell her the ingredient. “Does it make the blood better?”