WiredinSin by Lea Barrymire Page A

question of the week. Her head said
one thing but the rest of her yearned for another. She’d spent over fifty years
alone. Didn’t she deserve some companionship? Maybe not love, because she
didn’t have enough of her human soul left to be capable of love, but she could
enjoy Dominick’s attentions, enjoy his arms around her. The decision was made
for her when her arms wrapped around her own torso.
    “I’ve already cleared my calendar for Thursday. For your
protection, and sort of a trial run, let’s use the phones to meet. We can have
our date and see how things go.”
    “If that’s what you want, Victoria, then that’s what we’ll
do.” He didn’t sound happy about it though. “I’ll call you Thursday evening,
then. Unless I can talk you into another chat tomorrow?”
    She grinned. Even when he wasn’t happy with her he was being
nice. “Let’s play it by ear. I have your numbers, so if I have a few minutes
tomorrow I’ll call or text.”
    “Good night, fair Victoria. May your dreams be filled with
chocolates and magic. Fare thee well.”
    “Goodnight, Dominick,” she whispered, ignoring the tremor in
her voice.

Chapter Nine
     
    “Geez, Vic, you look like shit.”
    Victoria raised her head off her desk and blinked a few
times to clear her vision. She felt like shit. A cold lump of dog shit, on the
bottom of someone’s shoe, after they’d walked through a mud puddle on a pig
farm. It had started the minute she’d rolled out of bed. A slight headache and
an absence of appetite. Then throughout the day she’d just felt worse and worse
until she was in the position Gynger had found her in. Slumped in her chair,
resting her head on the desk, fighting the urge to sleep.
    She waved a weak hand at her friend in answer, too tired to
even voice the obviousness of how shitty she looked.
    “When was the last time you fed?”
    “Yesterday.”
    “But did you feed or just take calls? Vic, you’re starving.
Fuck, you’re too pale. I’ll go get one of the guys and you can feed off him
right now.”
    “No. No, it’s fine. I just don’t feel good.”
    “No, you are starving. I’ve seen it before.” Gynger turned
for the door.
    “Wait. I don’t want to feed from one of them. I don’t think
I could face them again if they knew I’d let myself get this bad.”
    Gynger turned from the door with a raised eyebrow. “Then
what? You going out? Find a stupid human to feed from? You’d kill someone like
this.”
    Victoria knew that, and honestly had known that she was
starving, but she’d refused to take energy from her clients. Her demon had
refused. They both wanted Dominick’s lust and seemed to be in complete
understanding that nothing else would do. She sighed. “I need to call
Dominick.”
    Silence hung heavy on the air. Vic was too tired to worry
about it. She laid her head back on the desk with a resigned grunt.
    “You need to feed from him, right?”
    Vic nodded. Voicing it again seemed like a weakness,
admitting her need for someone she’d never really met just rubbed her the wrong
way.
    “Okay, then I’m calling him right now.” Gynger whipped out
her cell phone and pushed a couple of buttons. She stared with a mixture of
anger and sympathy on her pixie face. Her face lost the worry the moment the
call was picked up. “Hey, Dominick. What are you doing right now?”
    Victoria tuned out the conversation. It was bad enough that
she’d let herself get this bad, but to have her friend have to make an
emergency “she needs to virtually fuck you or she’s going to lose it” call was
too much. She would have cried if she hadn’t been so tired.
    She jumped when Gynger’s hand touched her shoulder. Victoria
hadn’t even heard her friend move, or perhaps she’d fallen asleep. The warmth
from her friend’s palm surprised her. Her body temperature must have started
dropping. She’d never gotten this bad this fast before—no wonder Gynger had
freaked out at the sight.
    “Come on, I’m