Real Vampires: Glory Does Vegas Bartlett, Gerry (good fiction books to read .txt) 📖

“You’re not serious.” I grabbed his hand. “I don’t have time for this now.”

“I’ll pay you a big bonus for your help.” He named a figure that stopped me in my tracks. “I’ll back off the flirting, whatever you want to call it.” He stepped away from the door. “Hell, Glory, I’m sorry. Can’t you see I’m losing my mind, afraid I’m fucking this up? Go look at my computer. Maybe MacDonald is right and I need to redraw the territories. Am I in over my head?”

“You’re asking me about business?” I stood there, wearing my sparkly bra and revealing shorts, and wondering if we’d both lost our minds. Dominic Mayer had found these scientists and others and managed to secure the rights to high quality brands of synthetic blood. Several of them had the kick of alcohol or a drug. They were bound to be money makers for whoever decided to invest in and distribute them. I’d have given anything if I’d been rich enough to be one of those investors. This last-minute panic was just that—panic. I shook my head then took him by the shoulders and led him to his desk.

“Dom. Show me your spread sheet. The one with the brands you have to sell.” I stood behind him while he brought up the graph.

“See? There they are.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Now bring up the territories you want to sell to distributors.” I pretended to understand how the little boxes worked on the graph. He’d put values in them. Some seemed too big, others too little. I listened while he explained them. My mind was racing. Was there any way I could get in on this? I pretended to pay attention while I mentally went over my bank balance. No way. These territories would go for millions. Dom had even estimated how many vampires lived in various cities.

“Where did you get those numbers? Vampires live off the grid. I know I certainly didn’t participate in a census.” I sat on the edge of his desk. It seemed funny that he had so much information about people who spent centuries trying to stay invisible to the mortal world.

“You saw the Council House. Las Vegas isn’t the only city with a Council. I got in touch with the Councils in Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, New Orleans, Paris, London, capitals all over the world. I’m surprised you didn’t know about the vampire network.” He hit a button and a website came up. “Have you seen this site?”

“You’re kidding me. I could have looked up the vampire councils when I moved to a new city?” I gawked at the professional website. The name was strange—Myron the Leech and Friends.

“Sure. You just have to know where to look.” He put in a question and a list came up. “See? The address of our Council House for visiting vampires.”

“Who is Myron?” I couldn’t believe this was available. No one had told me about it. Did Jerry know? Was he really trying to keep me a secret? I felt my stomach burn. I should confront him about that but I was desperately eager to see him after months apart. Gods, but I hated my weakness around him, for him.

I’d never connected with other vampires before like I had here. It was a miracle that I’d accidentally walked into Dom’s business for a job. That coincidence was changing my life forever.

“Myron is the nerd who set this up. You can imagine it took a long time and a lot of trust. It’s not on the dark web. That would make it suspicious. No, it’s out there like any other website. Look at it. Boring as hell to anyone just trolling the web. But we know it’s something more.” He grinned and hit another button. “Check this out: Myron’s Favorite Places is a list of the addresses of safe houses all over the world. Myron’s cousins? Lists of vampires who wish to be on here. You want me to add you? I can put your current name and cell phone number, city too. You can be listed as a safe contact for a vamp in need of help.”

“Do it. How do you find out about this stuff?” I would have loved to have had this resource during some really dark nights when I’d almost called Jeremiah for help. Pride had kept me from it. “How many vamps are on there?”

“Hundreds. Not everyone is open to it. Paranoia is common among our kind.” He frowned. “For good reason. Look at what happened with the wolf pack.”

“They seem to be leaving us alone now.”

“They’d better.” He typed in my information. “Not even your shifter should know about this. Ask him. Ask him if he knows Myron the Leech. Bet you a hundred bucks he never heard of him.”

“Wow. I’ve been pretty stupid, though. Going it alone all these years.” I hated that. “My sire…”

“He probably knows, but maybe not. Is he into tech?” Dom smiled. “A lot of the older vampires ignore this shit.” He frowned as he typed. “Some of these phone numbers probably aren’t good. People change numbers all the time and don’t update their information, and you have to be careful using the safe houses. We try to keep them a secret. This site is a carefully guarded secret.” He nodded. “Okay, you’re in. But don’t help just anyone. Be cautious, Glory.”

“I have learned to be. That’s why I’ve survived this long.” I realized my fists were clinched. I wondered if Jerry did know about this site. He hired people to do tech work for him and didn’t care for computers. Did Robert? Micah had visited the Las Vegas Council House. He must have found it on Myron’s site. I wanted to spread the word. Every vampire should know. It could be a life saver.

“I guess I could even go to a library if I didn’t have a computer and look this up if I got in a jam.”

“That’s right.” Dom did