The Feeder by E.M Reders

And when she wasn’t running around ripping her hair out over finding a new cleaning crew for the club or getting the money out of Gideon for a new bar, again, she made time to talk to every one of the staff, to make sure they were coping after Pippa’s murder.
    If anything, it should have been them asking how she was. She was the one with the body in her bed.  Everything I learned about her made me want her more.
    And I could tell that she wanted me too… or well, I hoped so.
    Every so often I would get the sense that she did, a hint of attraction. Want. Desire. I felt it all, but without direct contact, I couldn’t be sure. There were other emotions too that plagued her; fear was the one that was present most. Usually, when another note was found – which pissed me off to no end as I couldn’t figure out who was leaving them – or after I asked her a question about life before the club. Both had me profoundly worried.
    The first day the club was reopened, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But at the end of the night when Eve made her rounds, checking each of the floors and rooms to see what needed cleaning up or fixing the next day, another body was found in the women’s toilets, a note pinned to her chest. It hadn’t been a familiar this time, just some young human. The most upsetting thing had been that the girl looked a lot like Eve. Long auburn hair and blue eyes. Whoever this guy was, he was well and truly obsessed with Eve… and a dead man when I got a hold of him.
    After that, we made it our mission to find and dispose of the bodies and notes before she found them. We never told her what we found, and we certainly didn’t show her the notes. They were getting more and more disturbing by the night.
    While I was worried about this crazy stalker, her reactions to my questions had been more worrisome. After another creep about during the day while she slept, I found the staff records. She was right, every single person that had been working at the club – both vampire and human alike – had been sacked the moment Gideon had come into power. He had also sent everyone connected to Denton packing. Why had he done that? What was he hiding? Or should I say who?
    It had taken a few days, but through a contact of mine, I’d discovered that there was a contract out for the collection and return of an Owned human whose last known location had been this club… the same day that Gideon had taken over. That human had been installed with a tracking device embedded deep within their right shoulder blade. A tracking device that I was more than positive was the one I’d found hidden away in Gideon’s office. According to the records, there were just three humans hired at the beginning of Gideon’s ownership of the club. Two of them had already left, one remained… Eve.
    Taking a quick break, I headed down to my room below. Checking my phone I saw that I had a missed call. Hitting redial, I flopped down on the bed and waited for it to connect.
    “So how is the job going?” Sabrina answered after only one ring. I could practically hear the sadistic smile etched across her face. The image of her fierce blood red eyes glinting in the darkness flashed in my mind.
    “Slow, that’s how it’s going. Fucking, bloody slow.”
    “So no one knows anything?”
    “Nothing. When the bastard took over after defeating Denton, he got rid of everyone that had not already left that was attached to him. Every one of the staff here, vamp and human, were hired after he took control. Well, everyone apart from Eve, who he brought here with him.”
    “Well, that’s something. Start with her. Get a hold of her and drag the information out of her,” she demanded. I didn’t like what she was suggesting. I knew the kind of methods she would use to get information and they were ones that I had used a time or two in my existence. But this was Eve we were talking about here. There was no way I would ever do anything like that to