Reign of the Vampires by Rebekah R. Ganiere Page A

better. He’s saved me more than once. He won’t let anyone get close to him, but he’s the first to put himself in harm’s way to save someone else.”
    “But….” she prompted.
    He glanced over at her, then down. “There are things about him that are strange.”
    “What kind of things?”
    William shook his head. “It’s hard to describe. He’s secretive, like he’s had a bad past. He hates Vampires with a passion. And—” William stopped and peered out the window again.
    Danika’s gut tightened. He hated Vampires. That should make things interesting. If Mason was hiding something from the world, some terrible past, Danika hoped she’d be the one to free him from his demons. If he didn’t let her get killed, first.
    After a forty minute drive they reached the Savor building downtown on Wabash Street. William’s legs shook the entire back seat and he bit his nails as he peered out at the city. Paul opened the door for them and helped her onto the pavement in her new red and black platform shoes. She strode across the lobby of the tall glass building, with William running to keep up.
    A female vamp sat behind the receptionist desk, answering phones. Danika walked up without a word, and the girl stuck out her hand to give Danika a stack of messages.
    “Any package from Oliver yet?”
    “No, m’lord. But I can call the courier and find out when it will be arriving.”
    “This is William, my new assistant; I’ll have him make the call.”
    “Welcome, William.” The receptionist smiled.
    “Hi.” William waved and then shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his khakis.
    Danika looked over William’s ill-fitting shirt and rumpled khakis. She added wardrobe to the list of things to accomplish, then motioned William to follow her. A guard stood in front of two elevators. He bowed to Danika, pushing the button for her. As a Vampire guard, trained by the Tracking Squad, he was the only line of defense for the building, besides the alarm system. Most of the executives had their own personal guardians, and attacks on Vampires were rare since humans had fled the cities. Vamps only caused a problem when they went rogue. Other than that, everyone was relatively civilized. There hadn’t been an all-out coven war in more than a hundred and fifty years. And minor coven wars were usually small and lasted less than a year. The three kings stepped in if things got too out of hand. And their word was law only overridden by the Council.
    Danika and William rode the elevator in silence. She scanned her messages. The elevator opened into the large sitting room that was home to her office and personal room, plus Chase’s office. In addition, there was a dining room, a conference room, and a secure sleeping chamber for emergencies. She walked over to the tall receptionist-style desk in front of her office and pointed to it.
    “This is your space,” she told William. “I don’t have a personal secretary right now so you’ll be filling in. You’ll be fitted for an earpiece so you can have a headset for answering the phone. Anything else you need, call Trisha down on the third floor, and she’ll order it for you. There are human food menus in the dining room that you can order from if you get hungry. I have accounts with them all. There’s also a bathroom for you to use as needed. I’m going to set my things down; then I’ll inform you what you need to get done tonight.”
    “Yes, Lord Danika,” he said.
    Danika set her briefcase on her desk then turned on her computer. Flipping through her messages, she picked out the easy ones and walked out front. William already had the computer booting up.
    “You’re going to want to write this down.”
    William pulled out a pad of paper and a pen.
    His hand flew across the pad of paper, scribbling notes as she read off the instructions for the first round of calls. “Yes, my lord.”
    “And when you make the calls, announce yourself as Lord Danika’s William. I will