Kenneth was sitting in his office. He was thinking about that farm manager who was on his way here. It was so strange; he had wanted the banquet to be the time and place to assert his dominance over the House and punish the moron right then and there. He had it all planned out, the stage had been set, the guests had all been arranged, his lesson had been meticulously planned and ready for execution.

  What he hadn’t counted on was Nova. That woman had held a poise and grace that he didn’t believe was possible in a human. He had been human once too, of course, but his vampire kind had outshone every living human in every possible way. He had been certain that he couldn’t even find humans attractive anymore. Maybe that was his ego, maybe something else. He had never strayed from his mate Natalia, until she had betrayed him with her weakness. He should have known better. It was probably his own fault.

  But Nova, he never thought about dominating her, not even once, after his initial interrupted attempt. He wanted her just as she was. And because of that weakness on his part, his plan had gone unfulfilled. Still, tonight was the night for retribution, not forgiveness. And the House would hear of his intolerance for those who would go against the best interests of the House, for their own petty gain. He looked up as the elevator chime rang and Brian escorted the man into the glass and metal office.

  The man was tall, dark brown hair. His pale blue eyes looked nervous but there was a sleazy confidence there as well. That may have been enough for Kenneth to have liked this man at another time and place, except for the straggly beard that the man wore. The wispy, coarse, wavy hair of the beard hung down and hid the entirety of his neck. Kenneth hated beards in all forms and that alone made him want to rip the man’s throat out. The fact that he had stolen from the House; that was just icing on the cake as far as Kenneth was concerned. He would have killed the man just for his disgusting beard.

  He met the young vampires with a look without getting up from behind his desk. He nodded casually toward an empty chair. Brian gestured for the guy to sit down and wait as he smiled.

  He sat down uneasily looking back and forth between Kenneth and Brian. “Uh, hey man is there a problem here? I have a business to run for you, Mr. Pacifico. I should probably be getting back. You know those two kids up on thirty-four? They’ve been getting a bit rowdy lately. I’ve had to work pretty hard to keep them in line, you know?”

  Kenneth didn’t look up from his tablet, but Brian gripped the man’s shoulder pretty hard. The guy winced in pain audibly and shot a look up at Brian. The look that Brian had was not friendly or forgiving in any way. The guy sitting in the chair immediately shut his mouth and turned around facing Kenneth. Brian released the guy’s shoulder, with a gentle pat before resuming his original posture behind him.

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  “I’ve been going over our numbers, specifically, your numbers,” Kenneth looked up to stare hard at the man sitting in front of him. “And I have to say, if I hadn’t been staring right at it, I would have missed it altogether.”

  The man sitting in the chair started to look a bit nervous but hid it with an easy smile. “My numbers have always been good. You know I had to rebuild that place practically from the ground up, right? I mean, its been slow, but things have been picking up lately. My numbers are as good as they can be.”

  Kenneth showed a little concern for the small-time crook, “Really? ‘As good as they can be’ hmm? Well, if that’s the case why didn’t you report that you needed some help? I could have sent any number of House members to come down and help with repairs or recruitment.”

  The guy smiled and waved his hand, “Nah, man it’s cool. I got it covered. I don’t really need any help, besides its down in the projects, and people from around here don’t exactly fit in down there, know what I mean?” he laughed loudly, “No, it’s cool Mr. Pacifico. I’ll have everything running smooth for you, it’s just been a few slow months is all.”

  Kenneth looked a bit taken aback by the rebuff for his offering to help. But he smiled warmly and stood up. He casually walked around his desk and sat down on the edge of the desk looking down at the seated man. “Well, that is good news. What is your name again?” Kenneth asked.

  “I’m Stewart, man. But really, it’s cool. I know I’m pretty low on the old totem pol…”

  Silently Kenneth drove a silver tipped dagger into the man’s heart. The silver pierced his heart and his life left his undead body almost instantly. Kenneth cleaned the blood off the knife and slid it back in its concealed sheath at his lower back.

  Brian looked up at his head of House with a bit of agitation, “That was, blunt. I thought you said you wanted to know what he was doing with the blood. And who may be buying it and for what? Now that he’s dead he can’t answer any of those questions.”

  “Oh that.” Kenneth sat back down behind his desk. “I was on the fence about the guy, sure. And I must admit that I was a bit curious. And yes I’ll have to figure out what he was doing in some other way, but his sleazy confidence, as if somehow, I didn’t know what he was up to? That just pissed me off, that and the beard was enough for me to want to kill him anyway. Oh, and speaking of, the next time you bring someone up here, make sure they shave. I fucking hate beards.”

  The cleaning crew showed up a few minutes later. They wrapped the body and the chair in plastic wrap. Then they used a dolly to lift the thing to the elevator and down to the garage. They then cleaned the glass floors with cleaner and squeegees and rags till the place was clean. Brian even saw them using club soda where the blood had touched some surfaces other than glass and metal, like the new Persian rug that accented the room so well.

  When the cleaning crew exited you would never have guessed anything had happened in here at all, except that there was one less chair in the room. Brian made another phone call and ordered a replacement chair.

  When he hung up, he turned to his Head of House, “Do you need me for anything else?”