Chapter 4
Unexpected visitor.
I dreamed about Claudia that night. She was drowning in the water and whenever I tried to reach her, the current was pulling her away from me. She was screaming, desperately fighting to get to me. I woke up several hours later, drenched with sweat. When I glanced at my reflection in the mirror, I had dark circles under my eyes.
After a quick shower and breakfast, I was ready to conquer another day. I couldn’t skip work; there was a lot of people who were relying on me today. My stomach was in knots when I rolled into the office in the morning. I kept thinking about Claudia, wondering where those bastards could have taken her. I hoped that the strange werewolf would call again, so I could ask him about the men who’d taken my cousin.
I had a lot of work to do before noon. Kate, my co-worker, arrived just after nine and made coffee for both of us. I called my dad, and after a bit of convincing, he finally revealed that the syringe with blood that had been found yesterday belonged to La Caz Pharmaceutical. He refused to say anything more and had to hang up.
My Aunt Dorothy called crying, asking me to tell her everything that I saw yesterday. She broke my heart when she sobbed into the phone.
It was a hard and long-winded conversation. After the line disconnected, I was ready to jump into a taxi, head over to La Caz Pharmaceutical, and question La Caz myself.
“You know that’s a bad idea, Julia. You have no proof that he had anything to do with the kidnapping,” Kate told me after I explained to her what had happened yesterday.
I was too wound up to concentrate on my work and Kate noticed that there was something wrong with me.
“I know,” I mumbled, wondering if I should ask my grandma for help. She was a very powerful elf, and maybe she could somehow trace that phone call. I knew that apart from the syringe, my father didn’t have any other evidence. I had to help with the search whether my dad liked it or not.
My regional manager, Rufus, was unreachable, as usual. I knew that he was still in London, but I was expecting him to at least pop in to the office to go over what happened at the meeting yesterday. I wanted to get promoted, but right now that wasn’t what was most important.
Jennifer kept telling me that La Caz only signed the contract because he was interested in me. I waved off this thought, tempted to arrange another meeting with him. He couldn’t possibly have signed with Paranormal Personnel because of me. No one in his right mind would even think like that, especially not Nathaniel La Caz. But deep down, I sort of knew that my subconscious was right. We had chemistry and an instant attraction. I couldn’t deny it, but right then I was too worried, thinking about my poor cousin, rather than wondering if he found me irresistible.
Time dragged on until lunch, and I kept going over the kidnapping in my head. But I still couldn’t remember anything specific about those men. At half past twelve, a fairy came in looking for call centre work. I took her CV and asked her to come back and register on Monday. Kate went to lunch and I stayed, waiting for an email from the HR director, worrying about Claudia even more when I heard someone at the door.
“I’ll be with you in a moment," I called out, staring at the screen for longer than I should have. Then the same overpowering smell hit me out of the blue: mint leaves and cedar notes. My skin buzzed again with rippling electricity.
Slowly, I lifted my eyes and found myself staring at Nathaniel La Caz. He was standing in front of my desk in broad daylight.
“Shit! What are you doing here?" I quickly covered my mouth with my hands. I really needed to watch my tongue. I dropped the pen on the floor that I’d been chewing on earlier on.
This was really unexpected, but convenient at the same time. Now, I could finally ask him about his special project—and Claudia.
“Hi Julia, it’s good to see you again.” His low sexy voice sent a shiver down my spine.
“You’re a vampire. How are you walking in daylight?”
He laughed. “I’m a Dhampir, so I don’t need to hide from the sunlight." He looked around the office. This gave me time to pull myself together. My heart was pounding, letting me know that I wasn’t making any progress with my self-control. Then I heard the door open again and saw Rufus marching towards us.
“Oh, Mr. La Caz, I can see that Julia is already keeping you company.”
I was speechless, glancing from Nathaniel to Rufus, not understanding what was going on. La Caz looked relaxed in his grey suit.
"Rufus," I began, clearing my throat, “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all morning."
"Oh, yes, Julia. Mr. La Caz, here, called me out of the blue and explained everything that happened during the meeting. He wanted to see Paranormal Personnel for himself, so I offered to drive him over," Rufus explained, smiling. Most of the female vampires in the office had a crush on Rufus. He was tall, nearly six feet four, and always dressed in a neat, tailored suit. He had light brown hair, trimmed short, and today, he was unshaven, which just added more magnetism to his look. After all, he was a giant.
Since all the paranormal creatures started breeding with humans’ centuries ago, they’d lost their species-specific looks. Trolls weren’t ugly, giants weren’t ten feet tall, and elves didn’t have pointed ears. However, we all had certain characteristics that helped us to recognise each other. Only vampires kept their paleness and thirst for blood, but they also adapted—they had to. Rufus was incredibly sexy, but when La Caz was standing there in all his gorgeous maleness, I was breathless. Nathaniel was very attractive. His body was toned and firm; he must have worked out a lot. He looked amazing in that grey suit.
"Right," I muttered, staring at Rufus, who had no idea what was happening inside my chest. I didn’t believe he was there because he wanted to check out the office. No managing director of any serious company would ask to do that, especially, not a vampire who had millions of pounds. At the same time, this was my chance to question him about the shot and Claudia’s kidnapping.
" Welcome to Paranormal Personnel, Mr. La Caz. Would you care for a coffee, maybe with dash of blood?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm. I just couldn’t help myself. Then Rufus’s phone started ringing at the same time.
Nathaniel sucked in a long breath and arched his left brow. Moments later, he sat on my desk and leaned over whispering, “I would love to have you on this desk, Miss Taylor. You can’t imagine how much you turn me on.”
I continued starting at him, dumbfounded. My mouth open and closed, but nothing came out. I was suddenly paralysed, while my heart pounded furiously in my chest. The lights inside the office started blinking and that wasn’t a good sign. Normally, I stayed away from men, especially paranormal, because my magic was so unpredictable. I was too scared of screwing up yet another relationship, or maybe it had something to do with my deepest insecurities. After all, my grandmother believed that I could never learn anything specific when it came to magic.
He must have been aware that my magic was causing havoc inside me, because he leaned closer. I inhaled fresh air and repeated my question.
"What the hell are you doing here, Nathaniel? Let’s face it; you didn’t come here to see our office, did you?" I leaned back in an attempt to distance myself from his mesmerising scent.
"I came here because I wanted to see you," he said quietly. Rufus’s back was turned to us and thank God for that, because I didn’t want him to witness this scene. I felt a bead of sweat start rolling down my back.
"Well, you’ve seen me. Now, I have a lot of work to do, so just leave me alone,” I said, sitting back down and trying to make myself look busy.
Then, I remembered that I wanted to ask him about Claudia. Damn. He had connections in the city, and I knew he could help me, but first I needed to make sure that he wasn’t the prime suspect.
Rufus turned off his phone and Nathaniel pulled away from me. "Julia, Mr. La Caz was telling me how you convinced him to sign up with us. We will need to take on a few extra staff here. La Caz Corporation is starting the production of a shot that eases the demand of blood from humans, so they will have to take on a lot of temps." Rufus seemed excited.
"Yes, we will need at least a hundred temps for the next few weeks," La Caz, said in a dry tone.
"Julia will take care of this; she knows what she’s doing," Rufus assured him.
"I don’t doubt that. Miss Taylor, here, already gave me the impression that she has everything under control. Do you think I can have a private word with her?" My regional manager looked surprised by his unusual request, but he flashed La Caz a positive smile. I didn’t understand why he had to ask Rufus’s permission; I was still standing there, and I was capable of making my own decisions.
"Of course, you can use the interview room, Mr. La Caz. I have another phone call I need to make." He sent me a sharp gaze, silently telling me to do whatever La Caz wanted. I had no other choice but to obey.
Once I was locked in that small space with him, I decided it would be safer for me to stand by the window, as far away from Mr. I-want-you-now as possible. I didn’t have a good feeling about this. Mostly because of my extreme attraction to him. Oddly enough, he still made me feel safe and I was getting a little turned on when I recognised his scent. I didn’t know anything about Dhamphirs or much about full-blooded vampires, but it seemed that La Caz could walk around in the sun. This was all new to me—it blew my mind.
He was watching me again and that annoying grin was still on his handsome face. His hazel eyes moved from my eyes to my neck, then travelled down to my waist, hips, and legs. My unease grew in leaps and bounds, and I just wanted to get this over with. I was afraid that my excess magic would give me away again.
“Right, I really don’t care that you’re my new boss, because yesterday just after our meeting in your factory, I witnessed two large paranormals dragging my cousin into a black van in the late afternoon. She’s been missing ever since, and my family is very worried.”
Nathaniel looked surprised, and that wasn’t the reaction I’d expected from him. My father and Kate were right. I had no evidence, because over two thousand people worked in that factory. Anyone could have been responsible for taking the Lucrative shot.
“I’m sorry to hear that, and I’m assuming that you believe that this was a premeditated kidnapping?"
"Of course, I do and the reason I’m talking about this with you is because yesterday, Mr. Porter talked about your production of the Lucrative Shot. My father, who works for Paranormal Unit, found a syringe with blood at the crime scene. He ran some checks and found that that serum had been produced by your company. My dad suspects that one of the men accidentally dropped it when they were abducting my cousin," I explained with a steady voice and his relaxed expression shifted.
He pursed his fully kissable lips and clenched his fists. "Miss. Taylor, I should be offended. You don’t have any proof and your accusations are lacking in substance. Our Lucrative Shot is not yet available to the public. Although I do understand your concerns, I would also ask those questions if a member of my family’s life were on the line. But I assure you, I had nothing to do with your cousin’s kidnapping. I know that you must be very upset about what’s happened, and you probably want to help your father."
I felt my face go from pale to red in a matter of seconds. Yeah, maybe I went too far asking him about the shot, but my intuition was telling me that someone within his company must have been involved. He needed to launch an investigation, or at least contact my father. I just wasn’t prepared to sit at my desk while Claudia was locked up somewhere.
"So, am I understanding you correctly? You don’t know anything about that injection?" I repeated, feeling somewhat irritated.
"If you have dinner with me, then I will be more than happy to tell you all about my production. I can even help you look for your cousin. I would really like to have an opportunity to get to know you.”