Unfettered Vampire (Found & Freed: The Unfettered #5)

3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

Ned

“ Y ou were paid to do a job, so man up, have some pride and bloody well do it properly!” I snap.

The plumber is staring at me in horror, but I don’t give a shit. If he had done what he was supposed to, I wouldn’t need to be having words. And I don’t think he is being incompetent, which would be somewhat forgivable. He is just downright frigging lazy and thought he could get away with it.

He opens his mouth to say something, but I don’t want to hear any of his excuses. So I continue with my tirade. As I’m doing so, the front door opens. Morgan is home.

My words falter, but a human would not have heard him. So I gamely continue on. Even though I’m no longer paying attention to the workshy workman. All my focus is on the sound of soft footsteps jogging up the stairs. Every evening for the whole week, it has been the same. Morgan comes home and goes straight up to see his kids. I don’t think it is because he doesn’t trust me. He is simply a man who loves his kids and misses them when he has to spend the day away from them .

Soft footsteps come back down the stairs. The kids are asleep. He has given each of them a forehead kiss and now he is coming to see what all the commotion is about.

But he is being awfully quiet. A human still would not have heard him. So I have to keep on being my true grumpy self. Damn it! Up to now, I’ve been on my very best behavior. Morgan thinks I’m charming and sweet.

“Everything alright?” asks Morgan from behind me.

My stomach does something strange. He didn’t spy on me. He announced his presence. He had one second to see me arguing with the plumber and he immediately took my side.

“Everything is fine!”

Crap. That came out harsher than I intended. I meant to reassure him that I had it all under control, but now I just sound like a grumpy asshole.

“George here was just leaving, but he is coming back first thing in the morning to redo his fix on the leak.”

George hastily agrees to this plan and then scurries away as if the hounds of hell are nipping at his ass.

I turn to face Morgan and find him regarding me with a wry smile. I swallow uneasily. Not only was I a bad tempered shit, it was to someone who is twice my size and appears to be twice my age. It’s such a strange disconnect. Because forty-year-olds look like babies to me, and I could snap any human like a twig.

But to mundanes, I still look like a young man. A short, slender one. They see a twink. Not a ninety-nine-year-old man who fought in the war and feels older than dirt.

“Should have guessed you were a firecracker,” says Morgan with a soft, tender smile .

My heart beats. Gosh. I may be an old man, but being a vampire has certainly given me the libido of a teenager. I’m not at all immune to tall, dark and handsome men smiling at me.

“Thanks for dealing with that for me. It’s not at all in the job description, so I really appreciate it.”

I nod. “No problem.”

I hate that he has brought up that he sees me as just his employee, but there is nothing I can do about that. It is the truth, after all.

He hesitates for a moment, and I wait with bated breath.

“Would you like a drink?”

Oh heaven help me. The answer should be no. I need to say no. I have to flee.

“That sounds great!” I say.

Damnit! Where is my backbone? My will power? Why oh why am I so flipping weak and feeble? Spending time with Morgan is a terrible idea. But I am powerless to resist. So I follow him meekly to his study.

“How were the kids?” he asks.

“Great!” I gush far too enthusiastically.

For fuck’s sake. I am a human. A young one. Working as a nanny. I am fond of kids. I’m not an old man, absolutely delighted to get to know his great-great grandkids. If I mess this up and get fired, my life might as well be over. I’ll have nothing left to live for.

“Their behavior was great!” I amend lamely. “And they went to bed with no fuss at all.”

Morgan raises one eyebrow. “Did you ensorcell them or something?”

I almost say, ‘No,’ sulkily, because I did not glamor them. I simply used my vampire strength to play with them energetically all day and tired them out the good old-fashioned way.

“I wish I had that power,” I manage to say instead.

Morgan chuckles, and the crisis is averted.

“What would you like to drink?” he asks.

“Whiskey,” I reply.

He nods and drifts over to his drinks cabinet. I listen to the quiet sounds of clinking glass and pouring liquid. It’s soothing. Almost homely.

Morgan walks back to me and hands me a cut-glass tumbler. I take it very carefully, ensuring that our fingers do not touch. I don’t think I could cope with that.

I knock back a mouthful of my drink, and flavors explode over my tongue.

“Flipping heck! I didn’t expect you to crack open the good stuff!” I splutter.

Morgan gives me a quizzical look.

“Dalmore?” I ask.

He smiles, “Dalmore twenty-five. You know your whiskey.”

I return his smile and take a far more appreciative sip of the expensive whiskey. God, it is perfection. Full of depth and character.

“Most young people don’t like whiskey,” says Morgan.

I snort in agreement. Ain’t that the truth. The younger generations are all Philistines.

Oh shit. I look up at him in horror. “I…um…my uncle got me into it.”

Morgan simply nods. “Your uncle sounds like a good man.”

“He was,” I reply absentmindedly as I stare at Morgan’s incredibly handsome face. I can’t see any suspicion or alarm. It looks like I got away with it.

“Is he no longer with us?”

I blink and try to focus on the conversation. Hells, my uncle has been dead for eighty years.

“Umm…no, sadly not.”

“And the rest of your family?” His dark eyes are so kind. I could fall into them forever.

“All gone,” I say. “It is just me left.”

And the three children sleeping upstairs.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

His sincerity is going to break me. Here is a man struggling with his own immense grief, yet still capable of feeling genuine concern for a practical stranger.

“It’s fine, it was years ago.”

Apart from Jennifer. But I didn’t know her. I had been trying to learn my lesson and stay away from my only living descendent. Barbara died of TB far too young. Her daughter Susan was taken by cancer when little Jennifer was only twenty. My bloodline seemed cursed and the grief was too much to bear.

I stayed away from Jennifer. But I caused her death. So now I have to make sure nothing ever happens to her children. It is going to be the only good thing to ever come out of being turned. I am going to be able to protect my family. Like I always should have done.

“I don’t think grief gives a shit about the years,” Morgan says. Then he downs his drink.

I sigh sadly. “No. You are right. It doesn’t. ”

I still miss Barbara. I miss my wife. I miss friends who died in the war. So very many years have passed, but they have barely taken the edge off the pain.

The perceived wisdom for vampires is that things get easier once you age out of a normal human lifespan. I’m turning one hundred in eighteen months time, so I guess I’ll soon be finding out if it is true.

In the meantime, I feel like an ancient fossil. Lingering after everyone I knew has gone and the world I lived in no longer exists. Everything has changed. The very language has evolved. I really don’t know how older vampires do it. Maybe it’s something you get used to.

“Do you want to watch a film?” asks Morgan.

I open my mouth, but before I can say anything, he continues.

“No, sorry. Forget I said anything. You have better things to do than keep an old man company.”

Old man? Who is he kidding? He is barely forty-five years old. Idiot. That’s not old. That’s barely beginning.

“I imagine you have a boyfriend or girlfriend to be getting back to?”

I blink at him while my thoughts whirl. My oh my, how times have changed. I love that he can ask that so casually. And I’m amused he went with boyfriend first. I don’t blame him. I’ve always looked a little too girly. People have always known what I am. It’s why Nell and I got married. To cover for one another.

“No, there is no one waiting for me.”

A flash of something in Morgan’s eyes makes my heart beat. Damn it. He wasn’t glad to hear that. I’m projecting. The poor man is grieving for his wife. He is not looking for anything. I should have simply invented a boyfriend. Then I’d be forced to keep myself in check.

“But I do have to go!” I blurt. “My housemates are doing a dinner!”

He nods his understanding. “Sounds lovely.”

My stomach swoops. “See you tomorrow!”

Now I’m running. Actually running. Grabbing my coat and heading for the door as if the house is on fire. It is for my own good though. And Morgan’s.

I’m leaving him to have dinner all alone in a silent house with only sleeping children for company. And it truly is for the best.

If I stay, I’ll get silly ideas and that will lead to all kinds of disasters.

Morgan is my boss. My great-grandson in law. And that is all he can ever be.