Chapter 5

The awkward conversation.

My magic was spiralling out of control again and I didn’t want to expose that part of me. I had already embarrassed myself enough. The stationary inside the room was moving around, and my heart was pounding loudly in my chest. The excess magic inside of my body was slowly accumulating; I needed to cast a spell of some sort soon, otherwise I might really damage something in the office.

He noticed, that much I knew; my energy was vibrating around us. I struggled to remain calm. Yesterday, when I was trying to sell him the contract, my magic forced me to leave the meeting. I didn’t like feeling so weak and vulnerable, unable to control my magic. It truly pissed me off.

“The answer is still no,” I said, not even knowing why I was being so stubborn. Elves weren’t supposed to get involved with vampires. They found our blood intoxicating and pure. Besides, my grandmother would freak if she were to find out that I went out with him.

At the same time, Claudia was somewhere out there, and I needed to find out anything that I could about the shot that his company was producing. I needed to make a decision.

He ran his hands through his sandy hair and my pulse increased. Then, before I could do anything, he was right beside me; I didn’t even know how he closed the distance between us so fast. His body was pressed against mine. He leaned over like he wanted to whisper something in my ear. I shivered as the heat from his touch burned my skin. Maybe I’d released too many emotional vibrations and he was losing control around me. Great, this was just fab. I just didn’t want to be anywhere near his fangs.

“Don’t play with me, Julia. I’m not a patient vampire. I want to get to know you a little better and we both know that you want to say yes. I can sense the sizzling attraction between us.”

Somehow, I had a feeling that he could read my thoughts. I continued taking long deep breaths, but for some reason I couldn’t move.

I was a little scared and his scent was overwhelming. He brushed his thumb down my neck and let go of a small controlled breath. My heart skipped a beat.

Moments later, he stepped away from me and I managed to take in a deep breath, remembering Claudia.

“I don’t think so, Mr. La Caz. I don’t date people I work with," I responded with obvious unease. “Besides, I’ll be very busy for a while. My father might be a in charge of my cousin’s investigation, but I want to help. She went missing because of me. I agreed to meet up with her.”

Nathaniel cocked his head to the side and caressed his jaw, watching me with the same intensity as before.

“We technically don’t work together, and I have many useful connections in the city. I want to help you find your cousin. Especially now, when my own company is linked to the investigation.”

“Let me think about it,” I mumbled, aware that a few cracks had just appeared in the window. I knew it was my magic and wanted to end this meeting as soon as possible.

We were done, and Nathaniel was a busy man; I didn’t want to keep him. I had a feeling that my dad would have to speak to him sooner or later. From a business point of view, I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but my cousin’s life was more important than anything.

“We shall see, Miss Taylor. We shall see. You must know that I don’t give up easily,” he added with a sly smile, then left the room.

I waited to make sure that he wasn’t planning to come back, then released some of my pent-up energy. It bounced around the room, tossing files from boxes, making a huge mess. My chest was rising and falling in rapid movements.

A minute later, I was out of there, feeling much more in control. Kate must have come back from her lunch while I was in the conference room. She was sitting at her desk, looking busy. For some reason, she was completely ignoring La Caz who was staring at the pictures of my mum and dad on the desk. He was probably waiting for Rufus. The two of them knew each other well enough I supposed. When my regional manager was finally done, he smiled at me briskly, then put his phone away.

"Mr. Humphries, thank you very much for showing me around your office. I’m looking forward to working with all of your staff, especially Julia.” Nathaniel winked at me. “My HR director will be in touch shortly.”

Kate noticed it, but didn’t say anything.

“Right, of course, Mr. La Caz. Are you ready to leave?” Rufus asked, picking up his briefcase. Nathaniel nodded, then looked at me again.

I pretended that I was reading a very important email, but my cheeks were flushed.

“Good day, Miss Taylor,” he said, then left without waiting for my response, thank God. Rufus nodded toward me, then rushed after him. Once they were out the door, I flopped back on my chair and took a long deep breath.

“Julia, are you all right?” Kate asked, after a long moment. She was short, with shoulder-length glossy purple hair and bright green eyes. Kate was a witch and had a large family.

I opened my eyes and started massaging my forehead. Nathaniel La Caz had pissed me off. He only showed up here to ask me out; I couldn’t believe that he had refused to tell me anything about the Lucrative Shot while my cousin was out there somewhere alone and scared. I wished that I had slapped him. My palm was itching. “I’m fine, Kate. I’m getting there,” I said, scanning my emails; my breaths were shallow and uneven.

“Was that Nathaniel La Caz?” she asked, folding some papers.

“Yes, it was him.”

“I thought he was a vampire. Why did he want to speak to you in private?”

I looked at her. I wasn’t focusing on my work anymore. I was freaked out by his behaviour and everything that had just taken place in this office. “He said he was a Dhampir.”

Her eyes widened in what seemed like shock.

“My God, Julia, this is unbelievable. I have never seen a Dhampir and I didn’t expect him to be one. I guess it’s true; he is walking in the sun and not burning." She put away her magic wand. “Did he really ask you out?”

"Yes, he did, but don’t get too excited. I said no. Last night my cousin was kidnapped right in front of me and one of his syringes was found in the same spot where she was abducted. I questioned him about it, but he insisted he’d only tell me more if I agreed to have dinner with him first.”

Kate widened her eyes again. I should have told her about this earlier, but we’d never been that close. We were just working together. I guessed that I didn’t need to hide this anymore.

“Kidnapped? What? That’s terrible. I hope your dad’s already looking for her.”

“Yes, he’s in charge of the investigation, but yesterday before we left for that meeting with La Caz, we had a strange phone call. One of the werewolves told me that I needed to be careful, because elves around London are going missing and the next thing I know, my cousin is abducted on the street,” I shouted, losing control again.

Kate frowned.

“Calm down, there is no point losing control now. Your father knows what he’s doing. Have you told him about the phone call?”

“Yes, yes, but he said there was no way we could trace it,” I admitted, looking down at my hands.

“I don’t think La Caz has anything to do with it. He’s the CEO of a large company, but I’m sure this won’t be the only time we’re going to see him around here.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked up at her with a strange expression.

“Well, you turned him down and he isn’t the sort of man who takes no for an answer. You intrigue him, Julia, and that means something.”

“Maybe, but I’m honestly no good with men, and everyone knows that elves should stay away from vampires,” I said, thinking about my friend, Ella. I was supposed to meet her tonight, but I was considering cancelling.

There was so much going on with me and I wanted to head over to the police station to see if my dad had any new information about Claudia.

“I suppose you’re right. You shouldn’t mix with vampires," Kate muttered. The phone rang, and she was the first to answer it.

An hour later, Rufus returned to the office. I was dreading to talk to him, especially after my conversation with La Caz, but he seemed to be in an excellent mood, which was worrying.

"So, how is everyone?" he asked with a wide smile spreading across his face.

"Well, good—not bad. How are you?" I scanned his face, trying to figure out if I was supposed to say anything about my cousin.

Rufus wasn’t just my boss, he was also a friend; it was only fair that he knew what was going on.

"Great. Don’t you think that La Caz has good manners? It was really nice of him to pop into the office."

"Yeah, superb." I tried not to sound sarcastic. “I really need to talk to you. Let’s go to the interview room.”

Rufus nodded, sensing the change in my tone. Yesterday, I was imagining this whole conversation completely different, but now, I really didn’t care about the raise.

I wasn’t going to celebrate tonight because of Claudia. It just didn’t feel right.

“You sound worried? What’s wrong?” Rufus had a very good relationship with my father. They’d known each other for years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he already knew about my cousin. I went through all the events from yesterday, explaining exactly what I’d seen. I also mentioned the Lucrative Shot and its connection to La Caz Pharmaceutical.

"My God, Julia, I don’t know what to say. How is your family holding up?"

"Mum doesn’t know, but I suspect that she will find out soon enough. I haven’t spoken to anyone else yet. I only told Kate just a moment ago. She was very supportive.”

"Let me know if you need anything, but the connection of that shot to our new client is worrying. He’s a businessman, but I doubt that he could be involved."

"Yeah, maybe, but Dad will probably want to talk to him about this. After all, it was his product."

I told Rufus that I would keep him posted, but deep down, I was angry that he already assumed that La Caz was innocent.

In the end, he gave me a raise and a promotion. We both knew that I expected it, but I could no longer truly be excited about it.

Claudia was important to me and I had to figure out my next step. Everyone kept telling me that my magic constantly got me into trouble, but this time, I needed to pull myself together. Things were happening—bad things, but the tiny voice in my head kept whispering that this was just the beginning.