Blood red love by Dripping Creativity

Blood red love 

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Charlie tried to keep her surprise out of her face. What Vidar had just said had been a lie. She was trying to work out why he had lied to the clan and, at the same time, she watched the 

faces of the other members. The only reason she could think of for him to lie was to try to provoke a response from one of the others. Unintentionally, Charlie found herself watching Millard more than the others. She admitted she might be biased. She truly detested the man. The four other clan members looked surprised, but Millard, for some reason, looked angry, or 

maybe irritated. 

“They were clever about it, I have to admit. Somehow they sneaked by a group of my men and entered the area you were covering, Millard,” Vidar explained. “I must say, I didn’t think a human could pull something like this off, it was a brilliant plan. If I didn’t have to kill them, I think I would have considered turning them and asking them to join me,” Vidar continued. It 

was then Charlie understood what he was doing. He must suspect Millard, just as she did. The 

one glaring weak spot in Millard’s armour was his pride. If the man looked down on Caine because he had been turned and wasn’t born a vampire, he must detest humans even more. 

To hear Vidar give them credit for a brilliant plan when he was the one who had performed it 

would be killing Millard inside. Charlie focused in on him, and he did look tortured. 

“You are saying a human got past our men?” Henry asked in disbelief. 

“As I said, they were some of the most skilled humans I have seen. Just the balls of them to 

try to infiltrate a meeting of six of the biggest crime families on the East Coast.” 

“That is impressive,” Adisa agreed. Charlie could swear he was holding back a laugh. Had het caught on to what Vidar was doing? If Charlie would guess, it looked like Adisa, Nasir, and Jun had an idea of what was going on. Henry just looked confused, and Millard looked like he was going to blow any minute. The tension in the room was back as no one spoke. The silence was interrupted by a sharp sound. Everyone looked at Millard as he took out his 

phone. 

“Sorry, I need to get this,” he said and walked out of the room. The room went back into silence. Charlie watched as the remaining vampires exchanged looks. She made a mental note to ask Vidar if they could communicate with telepathy. Time went on and the room stayed. silent and Millard didn’t come back. 

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“I can’t hear him,” Nasir commented. Adisa stood up and walked out of the room. He 

returned moments later. 

“He’s gone,” he told them. 

“Fuck!” Vidar exclaimed. 

“Care to share what this little performance was all about?” Jun asked. Vidar looked like he was ready to go after Millard, but he held back and instead took out his phone and sent at message to someone. Charlie was almost certain the message was for Caine. 

“Let me be honest with you, as I’m almost certain I can trust you,” Vidar said. 

“Of course you can!” Henry said. He looked upset at the mere thought of not being trusted by his clan brother. Vidar sighed and took Charlie’s hand in his as he explained the situation to the 

others. Charlie enclosed his hand in both of hers. She wanted to send him strength, as she knew this was hard for him. When he had laid out all the facts, the room got quiet again. 

“Fuck,” Adisa said. 

“Millard tried to kill Charlie? But why?” Henry asked. 

“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he felt scorned that I imprinted with her, or maybe it was a way to get to me. Maybe he is just not right in the head,” Vidar sneered. 

“And he thinks he can run? He betrays the clan, and he thinks he can run?” Nasir asked angrily. The others growled in agreement. As Charlie looked around the table, she could, for the first time, understand why people were afraid of vampires. The anger lit their eyes with blazing vengeance and as they snarled it showed their teeth, the vampire teeth were showing. Vidar got himself under control first and turned to her and looked worried. Charlie smiled at him. She may understand why others were scared of this group of vampires, but for the life of her, she couldn’t manifest the feeling herself. Definitely not towards Vidar. 

“We need to hunt him down,” Jun said. His voice sounded cool and relaxed, but his expression 

was far from it. 

“Caine is tracking him as we speak,” Vidar told them. 

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“If he needs my men, or to access my territory, he is free to it,” Adisa said. The other three vampires gave the same promise, and they all took out their phones and sent out orders. When the looked up, the silence remained. The Thursday evenings had never been so quiet as it had this evening. 

“I’m sorry, it feels like I set this in motion,” she told the men around the table, their focus 

shifted to her. 

“It’s not your fault,” Vidar reassured her. 

“Vidar is correct. If Millard had been an honourable vampire, he would not have acted like this. I fear his betrayal was unavoidable. Anything could have triggered it. I’m sorry he used you to justify it,” Jun said and put a heavy hand on her shoulder. It felt soothing. 

“Thank you.” 

“Jun and Vidar tell the truth. The fucking idiot was never a good fit. We tolerated him. because we all have a good relationship with his father,” Nasir explained. 

“We should reach out to his father. He needs to know,” Henry added. There was silence again. To Charlic, it looked like none of the vampires wanted to make the call. They all dreaded it. 

“I will reach out to him,” Vidar finally said. The others looked relieved. “I’m going to take 

Charlic home now. I don’t want her to be out in the open like this,” he continued. The others 

nodded. 

“Let’s take it one day at the time for now. I’m sure we will have Millard in a day or two,” Nasir said. They all stood up and made sure Charlie was in the centre of their group as they 

walked out. 

“Is this really necessary?” she questioned them. 

“Yes,” Adisa said. As they walked through the bar in a close group, Charlie heard her name 

being called. She stopped and turned around, and the men stopped with her. Mia came hurrying towards the group, and Charlie wondered if one of the nice vampires would make the woman go away. She had the feeling they would, but she didn’t know in what state Mia 

would be after, so she didn’t ask. 

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“Mia, hi,” Charlie said. 

“Um, hi. Could I have a word with you?” Mia asked, eying the group of men around Charlie. Charlie wondered how it looked to an outsider, her walking around with a group of highly attractive men around her. Tongues would be wagging when they left. 

“Sure,” Charlie said and waited.. 

“Alone?” 

“Oh, right? One moment,” Charlie told her, turning to Vidar. “I’ll just walk over to the bar. It’s less than ten steps away,” she said. He looked at her and then at the bar, as if it had moved further away since he last looked at it. Then he looked at Mia and Charlie could almost see 

the woman shrink under his gaze. 

“Fine. I’ll be here,” he told her and kissed her cheek. She smiled at him before turning around and walking to the bar with Mia. 

“Yes?” she asked. 

“Are they always like this?” Mia asked, looking towards the vampires, who all were looking at 

the two of them and not even trying to hide it. 

“No. So what did you want to talk about?” 

“Well. It’s James. He got into a little trouble at work and he said it wasn’t a big deal, they would just give him a slap on the hand. But now it seems the DA is not even considering giving him a deal. They want to make an example of him. It’s so unfair,” Mia said. 

“I’m sorry to hear that. Why are you telling me this?” Charlie asked. With everything else happening, she had almost forgotten about James, which suited her fine. 

“James said it was Mr Grim who accused him. If he would drop the charge, it would all go away. And since James is your brother’s best friend and you and Mr Grim are seeing each other, I was thinking…“. 

“You thought I would convince Vidar to drop the charge?” 

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“Yes.” 

“Sorry, but I won’t do that. What James did was wrong. He knew the consequences of his actions. He has made his bed. Have a nice evening, Mia. I hope you will see the truth about James.” Charlie turned around and walked back to Vidar. He put his arm around her and it felt 

nice to have him close and be surrounded by the others. Charlie felt safe. Outside, Malcom waited and opened the door to the car for her. “Sorry that we didn’t get to play cards,” she 

told the others. 

“We will play cards next time,” 

Said with a smile. 

“Sounds good. Have a nice evening,” she said to them all and got into the car. Vidar joined her and they were heading home. Vidar was still tightly wound, the stress oozed out of him. Charlie wanted to help him, she wanted him to relax. The days since the shooting had been hard on him, even if he would never admit it. “Vidar?” 

“Yes?” he answered and reached for her hand. 

“You said you would show me how the sauna worked. Since we ended the evening early, could. we do that today?” she asked. She thought she saw a glint of excitement in his eyes. 

“I would like that,” he agreed.