Lord of the realm

Chapter 274: Is he your boytoy?

"He’s not my boy toy," Kate said firmly.

"He’s a friend of Martha’s, a guest in our house. That’s all."

"A young, extraordinarily attractive friend who you brought to work with you."

"He was going to be alone in the house all day. I thought he might find it interesting to see a corporate environment."

Aubrey was quiet for a moment.

"Kate. I’ve known you for twelve years. You’ve never once brought a personal guest to the office. You barely mention your personal life during work hours. And now you show up with someone who looks like he walked out of a fashion catalog, and you expect me to believe this is casual interest?"

"It is," Kate insisted.

"Aubrey, I promise you this is not what it looks like."

"Then what is it?"

Kate looked at the quarterly reports on her screen. At the numbers that needed her attention. At the very normal work day that had suddenly become complicated by assumptions she should have anticipated.

"It’s complicated," she said finally.

"And personal. And I will explain it to you when I can, but right now I need you to trust that I’m not having an affair, Martha knows he’s here, and everything is fine."

Aubrey was quiet again.

Then she sighed. "Alright. I trust you. But Kate? The office is definitely talking. Your staff thinks he’s either your secret son or your kept man, and I’m not sure which rumor is worse for your professional image."

"My secret son?" Kate felt hysterical laughter bubbling up.

"People aren’t doing math. They’re doing gossip." Aubrey’s voice softened slightly.

"Handle it however you want. But be aware that this is now a thing people are noticing."

The call ended.

Kate sat at her desk for a moment, staring at her quarterly reports without seeing them.

Then she laughed.

It started small and grew, the absurdity of the situation overwhelming her usual professional control. The office thought Jaenor was her son or her boy toy. She didn’t exactly know who he was, but the familiarity and the yearning when she looked at him—she couldn’t quite possibly explain all of it.

She pressed her hands to her face, getting herself under control.

Then she picked up her desk phone and dialed reception.

"Hi, it’s Kate Buchanan. Could you let the visitor lounge know I’m coming down? I need to speak with my guest."

She left her office and walked the corridor to the lounge. Jaenor was sitting exactly where she’d left him, looking at a magazine with polite interest that was clearly performative.

He looked up when she entered.

"We have a problem," Kate said.

"The woman who was just here?"

"Who?"

"She said she was Vivian."

"Among other things," Kate sat down in the chair Vivian had vacated.

"The office has decided you’re either my secret illegitimate son or my inappropriately young lover. Those are apparently the only two explanations people can come up with for why I brought you here."

Jaenor’s expression didn’t change, but something moved through his eyes that might have been amusement.

"Don’t," Kate said, pointing at him.

"Don’t find this funny."

"I wasn’t."

"You were thinking it, though."

"Perhaps."

Kate looked at him for a moment, and despite the situation, despite the office gossip and the complicated reality underneath it, she found herself smiling.

"Aubrey wants to meet you," she said. "My boss. The CEO. She’s curious about who you are and what you’re doing here."

"What did you tell her?"

"That you’re Martha’s friend. A guest in our house, which is true."

"But incomplete."

"Very incomplete," Kate said, standing.

"Come on. Let’s go introduce you properly. Maybe that will calm the rumors down."

"Or make them worse," Jaenor observed.

"Probably make them worse," Kate agreed.

"But that’s a problem for future me."

They left the lounge together, walking side by side through the corridors of Ardan Motors, surrounded by whispers and speculation and the normal chaos of people trying to understand something that defied easy categorization.

Which was, Kate thought, remarkably appropriate given everything else about the situation.

Vivian watched them from behind her desk, a sly grin lingering on her lips. Her gaze often drifted toward Jaenor, and it was obvious she found him attractive. More than once, her thoughts wandered to what might happen if the two of them were ever alone.

*

The forest northeast of Kharsen was old growth, thick enough that sunlight barely penetrated to the forest floor even at midday. It was located several miles away from the city, making it a denser and more dangerous forest. The trees stood like pillars holding up a ceiling of interwoven branches, creating a permanent twilight that made navigation difficult for anyone without enhanced senses.

The vampire walked through it with ease.

His name was Marcus Varlen, and he’d been a vampire for forty-three years. Long enough to have lost most of his human hesitations, short enough that he still remembered what daylight felt like on skin that didn’t burn. Even the new born vampires last in the sunlight for a little while.

Vampire regeneration was efficient—not instant like some of the legends suggested, but fast enough that injuries that would kill humans became temporary inconveniences.

Marcus was beyond the sunlight-can-kill-vampires stage and had evolved into a baron’s rank.

Even though he held such rank, he was still an errand boy for the Countess.

With an annoyed expression, he was making his way through the forest. He didn’t like meeting her, and every time he met her, something bad was going to happen. He knew it from past experiences.

The path through the forest was cemented. Old cement, cracked and overgrown but still present, leading deeper into the wilderness. It had been a road once, decades ago, before this land was declared a nature preserve and official access was restricted.

The vampires owned it now. Had owned for seventy years, since the previous inhabitants had been quietly removed and the property deeds altered through methods that didn’t bear close examination.