C3 CHAPTER 3

Rita kept her face uninterested. “What do you want now Talia?” The vampiress shifted her weight from her right leg to her left. She was wearing a green blouse that left little to the imagination and a black pencil skirt. If the clothes were any tighter they would become a second skin, that was if it was not already. If that was the case then she was not wearing underwear or maybe she had lost it somewhere.

Talia came a little closer, playing the height intimidation card which was so childish because they were the same height and the only thing making that less apparent were the heels she was wearing. “What’s the rush, I just want us to have a little chat.” Talia said, a little too sweetly. She was up to something.

Still schooling her face to look uninterested Rita folded her arms. “We had all afternoon to chat, why now?”

They had, unfortunately, been working together that afternoon. They had all the time to have any kind of conversation then.

The most sickeningly sweet tone escaped Talia’s mouth that Rita thought she would empty the mostly liquid contents of her stomach.

“We were working and you seemed so focused on what you were doing, I didn’t want to break it.”

Ok, this was BS.

Rita was already getting pissed off. She needed to get her car before six fifteen or she would have to catch the bus and there was not enough cash in her purse for that. “Since when do you care about my focus or chatting during office hours? You seem very fine with it when you’re with the others.”

“That’s different, we–” Talia was going to spew some sweet smelling garbage, but garbage was still garbage. Rita stopped her there.

“Look it’s obvious you’re not here for just a little chat and whatever it is won’t be in the least bit good for me. Quite frankly it will be useless, so why don’t you just spit it out plain and simple, I have to hurry.” Annoyance evident in her voice.

And just like that the façade fell off Talia’s face. Her green eyes returned to their usual calculating bitch look. Her face lost all the sweet icing it had been covered in and the true Talia was now in front. A calculating hoe who was perpetually stuck in bitch mode.

Her left hand went to her hip and she leaned in. “I was just wondering why we all got such hard tasks today?”

That was what she asked but not what she meant. Her true words were written clearly in the air.

“If you wanted to know that you should have asked Marlene or better yet Anthony while they were still here or are you afraid of them?” She replied.

That earned a snarl from Talia, her fangs slightly flashing.

This would be a risky game right now if Marlene had not gotten ultra high definition surveillance cameras installed on the floor after Friday’s unfortunateness plus a nice little spell that she personally put in place.

Talia would not touch her unless she wanted to get suspended or arrested. Even so, it was still a risky game, she could still harm her outside the building.

“Now, if that was all please get out of my way.” Rita said, meaning to put an end to the conversation.

She walked past her, already so done with the conversation before it even ended. But Talia did not seem to be done with it yet. In a matter of seconds Talia had her right arm in a death grip, pulling on it harshly to make them both meet eye to eye.

A small hiss escaped both their lips, Talia’s in anger and hers in pain. She practically screamed as she added pressure to her arm. “You don’t walk away from me you stupid human, who the hell do you think you are? I just wanted to be nice for once and invite you out but hey guys what? You can forget about it and don’t even think of ever fitting in in this department.”

With those angry words Talia let her arm go with a shove that was intended to make her fall. Rita stood her ground and kept her balance. Her arm hurt like a bitch. She hoped she did not let it show too much. With one final look, Talia was gone.

Rita turned to the elevator to find her there. The bitch was going to take the elevator and make her take the stairs. “And one more thing, stay away from Theo he’s mine.” She said. A smirk plastered on her face as the elevator doors closed.

Once the elevator was on its way, Rita held her arm. It hurt a like a real bitch! There would be an ugly bruise there tomorrow. She glanced up at the office wall clock. Five Forty-five. The bitch had kept her here for longer than than she wanted and now she would have to take the stairs. She would be lucky if she made it made it down before passing out.

‘No use standing around here, better to get started.’ She thought.

She made for the stairs, taking it two at a time. By the eighth flight she was glad she had chosen flats. And by the twelfth she was cursing Talia.

Sure she had taken endurance classes but going down this many flights of stairs with an injured arm and an empty stomach was something else. At the fourteenth, she was panting and holding onto the rails. She was not going to make it.

A door opened and someone stepped out. They must have seen her.

“Need some help?” A male voice asked.

Rita tensed instantly. She recognized that voice. Theo.

“Looks like you do.” His voice came from right beside her. She whipped up so fast she might have nearly broken her neck. She stood up and faced him everything about her telling him to back off.

“No, don’t need any. I’m good.”

She was lying, they both knew it but she would rather have all ten of her fingers broken than take his help.

She had met him two years ago and her decision to stay away from him was one of the best things she had done. The guy for all his grey eyed, black haired beauty was a total creep. He was always watching her, asking personal questions and cornering her when they were alone. And like his new girlfriend, he was a total manwhore. He had people throwing themselves at him and he happily took advantage of it.

He had done half the female employees and screwed around with some guys too. And it did not help that he was a Vampire. She had caught him drinking from a woman and screwing her in the storage closet six months ago. That more than cemented her decision.

Ever since the supernatural community came out six years ago, world governments after the initial shock were quick to put up new laws stating what they could and could not do.

There were a lot of things supernaturals could not do now. Drinking blood from the source was one of them. It was illegal and could land any Vamp, hybrid or witch in jail for a very long time and Theo was doing it with abandon.

The only reason she had not ratted him out was because the woman, more of a girl really–another crime–begged her not to and because she needed to forget that image since rolling her eyes in bleach was not an option.

Theo pestered her about the incident for over a week. Popping up everywhere and startling the pancakes out of her. One time quite literally. She noted stalking was not a very far off thing he could do.

She had told him she would not tell if he stopped. She wished she did because he obviously went back to it and was just more careful with hiding it.

He did not back off, just stood there calmly. “You sure? I could carry you all the way down in less than a minute you know? It won’t be a problem.”

‘It wouldn’t be a problem if you were not such a slutty creep and your slutty girlfriend hadn’t just nearly broken my arm.’ Rita thought.

She sidestepped him and started her downward descent again, taking three at once this time. “I’m sure.” She looked at her watch, five fifty. She definitely was not going to make it. She still needed to get down and away from him. She turned her head to check where he was and sure enough he was still watching her. Standing as still as a beautiful cold Givenchy wearing statue. You know, if marble statues wore Givenchy.

She kept going, she needed space from him and he had said he could get down in less than a minute. She had managed to keep him at a distance for five months and as far as she knew he had stopped watching her. As far as she knew. She did not want him to go back to it and he seemed to be doing just that already.

She had not reached the sixteenth flight when she felt him put his arm at the back of her knees effectively taking her off the ground and carrying her. Her arms, out of reflex, went around his neck in a bid to keep herself from falling.

Against her warm dark brown skin, his pale white sand coloured skin was cold. Where hers pulsed with life, his did not. She started flailing. Last time he had her in this position he had tried kissing her and although she had been taking self-defense classes for eight and a half years she was not sure she could go up against a horny vamp again.

That last time proved it when she had slapped him hard enough to cause serious neck damage and even more serious bruising to a grown human man and he barely even flinched. Her hand got hurt instead, numb and then bruised.

She slammed her hands against his chest trying to get him to let go but he was not getting the message. She hardly thought anything she was doing was making even a microscopic dent. “Put me down. I can go on by myself.”

He did not put her down, if anything his hold got tighter.

“Stop moving would you. I don’t think you’d want us to take a fall down from here.” He said but she kept flailing. He did not seem to take notice because the next thing he said was.

“Hold on tight.”

Rita had registered that last phrase a bit late and just like that they were off. The speed they were going at was insane. She automatically held on tighter and closed her eyes. Praying to any forces that would listen. ‘please don’t let me down, please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die.’

And just as fast as it had happened it was over.

Her eyes remained closed even as Theo’s tone sounded so full of smirks. “We’re here, you can let go now.”

Her eyes snapped open and seeing how tightly she was holding onto him, she let go of him as if he had spontaneously caught fire. “That was quick, umm thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He replied giving her a small smile that showed off a small fraction of his glistening fangs.

“Your turn to let me go now.” She said. He was still carrying her bridal style and after everything that just happened in those nanoseconds she had more reason to dislike it.

“You sure?” He asked, the smile turning into a smirk.

“Yes I’m sure.” Rita answered, still looking at him with suspicion.

“Alright then.” Theo said putting her feet to the floor.

She wobbled for a few minutes. Whiplash was a serious thing. Theo held her by her shoulders and steadied her.

When she found her center of gravity he let her go. Amusement was clear on his face. “First time?”

“First time.” She answered, her head still spinning. “And last, because I’m not doing that again. How fast were we going?”

She did not catch the answer, although she vaguely heard the number fifty. Her attention had focused on Talia. Who had just stepped out of the elevator. If looks could kill Rita would be dead on the cold marble floor.