[Rock]We left the restaurant and headed to the offices of Dennis Lyons. It was my understanding that he stayed there during the day if he had meetings in the afternoon and evening. Otherwise, he stayed somewhere else. No one knew where he was really sleeping. For the most part, vampires had nothing to do with me. The ones who owned businesses had human servants to take care of things for them. They met during the day. For the first few years, Mr. Lyons had done that with me, but I left a note one day after work letting him know I knew he was a vampire and I wanted to arrange a meeting. He had several vampires who worked for him at the meeting but did meet me there. I talked to him about how much easier it would be for him to have a company he could trust. A company that knew his secret and could work with him. When I told him my company had no humans, he was intrigued. After he figured out that I was fae, he was even more interested in working with us. I let him know we could work with him in the winter months and could give his projects specialized attention if we did them in the ‘off-season’. Ever since then, we would meet in late summer to go over what he wanted to work on in the winter. He was practically my only client during the colder months. My permanent guys depended on him and his business. We pulled up at the building where Mr. Lyons told me to meet him. I went to help Carmen out of the truck. She looked a little excited. I grabbed my tablet out of my bag before Carmen and I went to the door. I knocked and it took a few minutes before the door was opened by Mr. Lyons’ human servant, a man named Tyler. They’d only been together for about thirty years, but Mr. Lyons trusted him and I liked Tyler. He was about my age but looked Carmen’s age. “Tyler, how are you?” I asked. “Doing great, Mr. Beaumont. Who is this beautiful young lady? We didn’t realize you were bringing someone with you.” Tyler was under six feet tall with light brown hair. He looked like a pretty standard human. One of those men who would age well, but looked very plain as a younger man. I knew he was only living because of his vampire master. He had some sort of illness that would have killed him, but Mr. Lyons’ blood was keeping him from succumbing to it. I growled at him a little. Even being plain, he was more attractive than I was and I didn’t like him calling my mate beautiful, even though she was. Carmen sighed. “I’m Carmen Rosen, Rock’s true mate, and office manager.” She held her hand out in his direction. Tyler accepted her hand and shook it briefly. He chose to ignore my growling. That was fine. It seemed to exasperate my mate. “Tyler Lyons. Human servants take the name of the vampire they serve,” he explained. “It’s nice to meet you.” “Please follow me. Master Dennis is waiting for you.” He led us down the hall. I’d been here dozens of times before, including a couple decades ago when Mr. Lyons hired me to turn this old building into his main offices. It was the job where I’d revealed myself to him. Most of the people who were approached for the job didn’t like the idea of following the design specs. It wouldn’t be something that humans would want, because they needed sunlight. It was part of what tipped me off that he wasn’t human. When we reached the office, Tyler guided us in. The room had frosted windows letting in minimal sunlight. The theme of the room was something softer than I would expect from a vampire. He used colors that weren’t bold and only used metal where he couldn’t avoid it. None of the stark monochrome I expected. Mr. Lyons stood and made his way around the desk. He was a little taller than Tyler, not much, with silver hair. He wore a mustache that didn’t make him look as stupid as most humans with a mustache. His eyes glowed a bluish-green color when he was excited or angry, which I’d only seen once in all the years I’d known him. He wore a suit and was well put together. Carmen’s nose wrinkled a little before she rubbed it in a cute way. I could smell blood he must have eaten recently. “Mr. Beaumont, I appreciate you coming out. And who is this?” Mr. Lyons asked. “Thank you for meeting with us, Mr. Lyons. This is my true mate and office manager, Carmen Rosen,” I said. “A werewolf? How interesting. My niece is mated to a werewolf, you know? I’m sure Ms. Rosen is a perfect match for you. The goddess wants all of her people to be happy and she favors the fae over all others.” He smiled at us. “Please, come have a seat.” Though he had a desk, Mr. Lyons never discussed our business there. He said that was for times when he had to remind people of their place in his dynamic with them. It was for those who weren’t respectful. If I hadn’t learned how to deal with humans in the way humans did, I would have ended up at the desk, and I knew it. The trolls at work might tease me about being weak because of how I treated others, but it kept them employed. They would never do anything to undermine my work. I led Carmen to a seat and made sure she was comfortable before I took a seat next to her. The vampire seemed to glide when he moved. Every movement flowed like water. When he sat, it was like a natural end to the movement. “Now, I have an idea and I’ve bought a property already. I want to make a new club this one is a little different,” Mr. Lyons told me. “How is this one going to be different than your others, and don’t you think you’re flooding the market with clubs? This isn’t a huge city.” “It’s big enough for one more and it will only be open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for most of the year. This is an alcohol-free club that is aimed at youth. They don’t have a lot they can do and I have been informed that some have paid adults to buy them alcoholic beverages at The Neutral.” He looked disappointed, but not as pissed off as I would be. That was illegal and could get his license pulled if the cops found out. Instead, he was solving the problem. “You think this is going to fix it? The kids will still come to The Neutral,” I replied. “I’ll be changing the age range there to a minimum of eighteen. It reduces the risk because there aren’t as many of them and we will be adopting several new rules as well as installing more security with sensitive senses of smell. Permanent bans will be put on those who are found buying a drink for a minor as well as the people found to be getting others to buy them a drink.” “It seems like running an all-ages club is a lot of work,” Carmen said. “But I am grateful to you for that club. It’s where I met Rock.” “Oh?” Mr. Lyons asked. “The fae night you did a few weeks ago. Carmen found me before my coming of age because she and her friends came to the fae night,” I explained. “Tell me more about this other club you want to start. It’s for minors only?” “No. For anyone who wants to dance without the temptation of alcohol. There will be an area where drinks will be sold, but there will be no alcohol on site, so no liquor license will be needed. I have a designer who put together a plan I only need you to make it a reality.” He handed me a folder. I opened it to look over the report from his designer as well as the specs of the building. I’d need to see it in person, but it looked like I should be able to do what they wanted. I nodded as I flipped through the pages. “What’s the timeframe you’re thinking?” I asked. “I would like the club to be done before the schools have their spring break next year. It will be the grand opening if you think we can get it done in that amount of time. I want it done well, but I also have another thing I needed to talk to you about,” Mr. Lyons told me before handing me another folder. I opened it to see a couple floor plans for small four-unit apartments, along with a layout for the current lot with its preexisting buildings. I would need to look at the earth to see if it would support what they wanted to do. There was a very large house on the property already. There would need to be a mess of permits for this project and it would take a lot of hours. It was a great guaranteed income, though. I had fewer guys in the winter, but we could do the remodel in the winter, work on the permits, and plan to start the build in spring when most of my temp guys came back. “This seems like an ambitious plan. Why are you looking to put apartments on this land when there’s a mansion on it already? I mean, there’s space for it, but it seems strange.” “The Master of the territory needs housing for his guards and for his housekeepers. I told him I knew a company that was the best in the area, plus he would be hiring supernaturals for the work, which would help his allies to see he was keeping work within the community,” Mr. Lyons explained. “Victor Nightshade is the Master of the territory, right?” Carmen asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Will it be a conflict that Gray will be working for our company, then?” He frowned and looked away. It could be seen as a sort of nepotism. Carmen was being thorough. We didn’t want to get our hopes up for a big job and have it taken away because we hired Gray.“You are the only fully supernatural construction company in the area. The others may be supernatural-run, but they have human employees. Master Nightshade can do whatever he pleases, but this decision will come down to what he needs and wants, not whether or not his wife’s other mate works for you,” Mr. Lyons said. “We aren’t hiring Gray because he has a relationship with the Master of the territory. I can assure you of that much,” I told him.“I know you wouldn’t lie, Mr. Beaumont, not when your company and reputation were on the line, but I have never been able to tell if trolls were lying,” he admitted. “Your skin blocks the sound of your heartbeat and your scent rarely changes.” “Trolls don’t lie if they can avoid it. Rock would never lie to you. I promise, we are not hiring Gray because of his connection to Victor,” Carmen vowed. His nose twitched a little as he looked over at Carmen and nodded. She must have smelled as if she was telling the truth because he was more relaxed after that. He had never seemed all that relaxed in our meetings before. I was wondering if his not being able to smell my honesty was a bigger issue than he let on. “I appreciate that, Ms. Rosen.” “Please call me Carmen. I prefer that until I can officially be Mrs. Beaumont,” Carmen replied with a slight blush. That made me want to take her to city hall on Monday and marry her right then. Hell, I’d drive to Reno and we could be married tomorrow. The idea of her taking my name made me very proud. “Thank you, Carmen.” “And you can call me Rock, as well. We’ve been working together for years. I would be fine with being less professional,” I told him. “Then you both must call me Dennis. I insist.” I nodded to him and Carmen smiled brightly. Dennis stood. “Take the file with you and work up an estimate on the labor and timeframe. Master Nightshade would like to hear from you soon on what you’re thinking. This is very important to him.” Standing, I secured both files under my arm. I would have it all figured out by the end of the weekend. As long as Carmen was okay with me working on it, at least. I reached down and picked up Carmen’s hand, helping her stand. Dennis walked with us to the entrance of his office. He stopped and put his hand out. I shook it, then he held his hand out to Carmen. He looked shocked when I moved her to place her hand in his. Her eyes began to glow slightly. I wouldn’t have been able to see it if not for how dark the area was. Carmen gasped. “Are you alright?” I asked quickly. “She’s afraid of the dark, Dennis. Don’t leave her alone in the dark,” she whispered. “True sight…. It has been centuries since I last saw this blessing. The same glow as the last one I saw,” he murmured. “You’ve seen this before?” He nodded. “A woman who I saved in a battle. She wasn’t one of our people, but she was old and couldn’t protect herself. She was blind, but she touched me and told me my Solus Amor wouldn’t love me. Her eyes shimmered in that same way. Don’t worry, Carmen, if I find a woman who is about to be alone in the dark, I won’t leave her.” Dennis kissed the back of her hand and offered her back to me. I took my mate and felt better. I always felt better when I was touching her. “I’m sorry about your Solus Amor, but I don’t think she deserved you if she didn’t love you. Now you get to find a new love.” He chuckled dryly. “A vampire can never love anyone the way they love their Solus Amor. I appreciate it, but losing a Solus Amor isn’t like being rejected for a shapeshifter.” “Maybe that’s changing. There have been a lot of changes in the last year. Maybe the goddess is more generous to those who follow her plan. You would have accepted your mate, but she didn’t want you. Maybe the woman who’s afraid of the dark is a second chance…” Carmen suggested before we left the room. I saw his expression turn thoughtful before I closed the door behind us. Tyler led us out to the exit and we went back to my truck without incident. I really thought Dennis would follow us with that last bit of information, but it seemed like risking the dwindling sunlight wasn’t worth it to him.