4. Natalia

The chillof the night air even at two o"clock in the morning does nothing to dampen my ire. I hit Chara's contact number and wait to see if she's still out in the clubs or back at our apartment because the little night owl seldom, if ever, gets to sleep before three. Chara answers on the second ring. "Hey there. How'd the big meeting with the brothers go?"

"OMG! You would not believe what happened. I swear my heart hasn't settled down yet. Where are you? I'll join you for a drink and tell you all about it." She laughs. "I'm home, believe it or not. The blind date was another flop. I'm destined to be single. I was just going to make a batch of pi?a coladas. I figure drowning my sorrows and taking care of this time of the month's sugar craving while doing it is a good idea. Not that I won't be completely sorry about it tomorrow.

I laugh as a car pulls up to the curb. "Sounds like a perfect plan to me. I'm just catching a ride." I slip into the back seat of the yellow car and give the driver my address. "Uber?" Chara asks as I hear the ice maker clunking in the background. I shake my head as though she can hear my thoughts. "No, a taxi was outside the club, so I won't be long." I disconnect and sit back, letting the events of the evening run through my mind. Maybe I was a little hard on Michael, but I swear it's the only way to get him to listen to reason these days. He's as overbearing as our dad was.

I glance up, and the driver makes eye contact with me in the rearview as he pulls alongside the curb outside of our apartment complex. His eyes redden as he continues to stare. "Give your brothers a message. Stay out of the vampires' business. If they side with the masters, they will become enemies of the rogues." His fangs descend, and he laughs a maniacally evil sound that I will probably never forget. "We especially like the taste of blood from little blonde girls like you. This is the only warning they will get."

A cold, dark chill settles deep in my bones. I scramble to grab my purse and fumble with the door handle in my race to get from the car into the locked apartment complex. My hands shake so badly that I can barely hit the numbers of the keypad to gain entrance. Even after I'm in the secure area of the foyer, my body does not stop trembling as I watch the taillights of the taxi disappear into the night. A shiver snakes its way down the length of my spine. My brothers were right. We've been thrown into the middle of a blood-thirsty vampire war.

Chara looks up from the kitchen counter when I walk in, and she immediately knows something is very wrong. She wipes her hands on a towel and sets it on the counter. "What happened, Natalia? You're as white as a ghost."

I nod. "Drink, I need a really strong drink. Less sugar, more alcohol for me," I tell her, sliding onto one of the faux leather barstools she found at an uptown boutique, not that long ago.

She pours each of us a drink from the blender's pitcher, and then adds a little more of the coconut rum to mine. "There's a little extra. Now, tell me what's going on. What happened?" she says, coming around with her drink to sit next to me. She takes the black pony holder from her wrist and wraps her shoulder-length auburn hair into a messy bun and crosses her legs on the stool for our talk. I don't leave one detail out, refilling our glasses twice before I've finished with all that's happened tonight.

Chara is quiet for a bit, contemplating everything I've said. "Well, your brothers may not have liked that they were there when Lucas arrived or that they're in the middle of this with the vampires, but at least they know. I mean, at least that allows them to get out in front of it, have their guard up, get more security. Hell, whatever it is they do to keep themselves and you safe."

She gets up to make another pitcher, but I put my hand out. "I'll make this one."

She smiles. "Here I thought I was going to have a long boring night in bed contemplating the disaster of my love life; instead, we're contemplating how to keep you and your brothers alive."

I laugh. "I swear it's so good to have a bestie who will just listen and let you vent without trying to solve every problem you have. I wish you could give my brothers lessons. I know they mean well, but I swear, they absolutely smother me with their good intentions. They caught me just looking at Master Oradea and laid the law down about mingling with him right away."

Her bright green eyes widen with amusement. "So, the virgin has been out scouting for a mate to do the honors." I push my drunken friend playfully, then grab her shoulder to prevent her from toppling to the floor. We both laugh, but we may not feel so jovial in the morning after this much to drink. "And to set the record straight. I was not scouting. He just happened to saunter into the club, with those powerful thighs and panther-like grace." I roll my eyes. "He's hardly my type."

She grins. "What happened to holding out for looove?"

My eyes narrow at my friend's reminder of my mantra for the last five years. "I haven't even had a steady boyfriend. I mean, would you come anywhere near me with my brothers' reputations? I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to experience life on the fly, and under the radar of my watchful brothers if I'm to have any sort of life at all. But definitely no to the vampire."

Her elegantly plucked eyebrows raise in an arch. "Well, you could do worse than a sexy vampire. I hear they're crazy good in bed. I mean, dungeons too sometimes."

My eyes go wide. "Stop!"

Chara shrugs. "It's true. Ask anyone who's been with them. Most of them keep dungeons in the lower level of their estates. If you want to see for yourself what it's all about, you should come to Club Descallia. Now, that's where a girl can get truly pampered." She takes another long sip of her creamy drink. "Or spanked, or whatever your little heart desires."

I sigh, because finding someone who loves me after getting to know my brothers is not likely to happen. "After what transpired tonight, getting close to the vampires or where they hang out is likely to get me guarded around the clock. Who am I kidding; the minute I tell Michael about the vampire's threat, I'm going to be sitting in this damn apartment for an eternity. I only intended to take the summer off after graduation and find a job in the fall. They've always been against me finding traditional work, but this is just going to sink that effort all to hell."

Chara rolls her eyes dramatically. "Please forgive me if I don't feel sorry for you one little bit. You need to appreciate that they want to keep you safe, that you have a sheltered life, can afford anything your heart desires. Seriously, not everyone has that."

I sigh. "I know, and I'm sorry. I know you work two jobs to pay bills, even though I tell you that you don't have to give me a penny for the apartment, utilities, or any of it. I wish you would just accept it for the gift that it is. I just put your money in an account for you later in life anyway."

Chara shakes her head at me. Same story, different day. She's never going to allow my family's money to support her no matter that she thinks the world of me. It's just not how Chara rolls. "You know I won't take it."

I give her a grin. "One day you will, for some unknown reason to us now. You'll see. Destiny has a way of deciding these things, no matter what we like to think."

She unwinds from the stool without falling off and steadies herself on my shoulder. "Off to bed I go, or we're both going to be jobless. I'm pulling the afternoon shift down at the club tomorrow. The Descallias do not take kindly to hungover staff. Only exceptional service is tolerated there."

"Off to bed you go. I'm going to drown my sorrows in another drink and then go to bed myself."

Chara gives me the mother hen look. "Talk to your brothers tomorrow. They'll want to protect you. Listen to them. You need to be protected. Promise me that you will?"

I nod. "I'll tell them tomorrow, when I'm fresh and not three sheets to the wind and my head's not still spinning with the image of that face in the rearview mirror."

"Good, they mean well."

"They act like I'm sixteen instead of twenty-one. Michael is the worst, but he's quiet and authoritarian about it, you know, like my dad. All the weight of the world has fallen to him since Dad died."

Chara puts her arms around me and pulls me in for a hug. "He needs time to settle into his role of father, big brother, and leader of a family who just lost their don. We'll get through this, Natalia. We always do. Best friends since kindergarten, and we'll be besties until we die."

I give her a reassuring smile, but inside the cold, dark chill of the rogue vampire stays with me, as though warning me of impending doom. I'm just not sure how this one plays out, Chara.