Crave (Vampire Beloved Book Five)
Crave
Vampire Beloved Book Five
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2021, R. E. Butler
Crave (Vampire Beloved Book Five)
By R. E. Butler
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Cover by Jacqueline Sweet
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Edited by Missy Borucki
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Thanks to Ann, Joyce, and Shelley for beta reading.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Coming Next from R. E. Butler
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Also from R. E. Butler
Coming Next in the Vampire Beloved Series
Crave (Vampire Beloved Book Five)
By R. E. Butler
Tiger shifter Aeryn’s culinary school dream comes true when she accepts a job at the vampire coven’s new restaurant. Her family is worried about her being around so many vampires because her shifter blood is a powerful allure to them, but she’s been promised by the master of the coven that she’ll be safe, and she trusts she will be.
Merrix has only been a vampire for five years, but he loves everything about it—immortality, strength, speed, and an allure to humans that makes him irresistible. Working for the coven’s construction company keeps his nights busy, but his days are lonely, and he hopes he meets his truemate soon. When he goes to the new vampire restaurant with his boss for a performance review, an accident in the kitchen brings the most captivating scent to him, and he rescues the beautiful Aeryn from a newbie vampire.
Working for the restaurant and being seen with Merrix makes Aeryn a target for the coven’s enemies—the First Church of Humanity. When she’s taken, can Merrix get to her in time before the dangerous anti-vampire group makes an example of her, or will their new relationship be ended far too soon?
Chapter One
Aeryn parked her older-model sedan behind Bistro Rouge, the Cleveland coven’s restaurant. Turning off the engine, she texted her mother that she arrived safely and waited for her mom’s answering text that she got the message. Then she swiped her thumb on the screen to activate the do not disturb function and climbed from the car. She inhaled the humid, late-June air, looking upward past the buildings to the darkening sky as the sun began to set. Closing and locking her car, she tucked the keys into her small purse and headed toward the back door. It opened as she approached, and she smiled at Tymon, a night elf who worked daytime security at the restaurant.
“Heya,” she said.
He held the door with one hand, tucking a lock of long, white hair behind his ear. “Evening, Aeryn. How was your day?”
“Too short.”
He snorted good-naturedly. “Aren’t they always?”
Tymon and his sister, Zia, were the nicest people she’d ever met. And they loved her baked goods.
Aeryn put her bag in her locker and took her apron from the hook near the swing doors leading into the kitchen.
“Hey, girl,” Zia said, striding into the kitchen.
“Wow, you look great,” Aeryn said.
“Thanks. I’ve got a date after work.” Zia tugged on the hem of the miniskirt. Usually, she and Tymon dressed similarly in dark pants and shirts. Seeing her long legs in high heels and the shirt's daringly low neck revealing plenty of cleavage made Aeryn feel dowdy in her black trousers and white chef’s jacket.
“Nice. Is he an elf?”
Zia wrinkled her nose. “What? Ew. No thanks. Elf males are ridiculous and old-fashioned. I’m going out with a vampire from a visiting coven. The last time he came into town with his master to speak to Mishka, I was in the club dancing, and he sought me out.”
“Well, good luck. I hope you have a blast.”
Tymon let out a snarl. “Not too good of a time.”
“Brothers,” Zia said, rolling her eyes.
“Preaching to the choir,” Aeryn said with a chuckle. Her brother, Gavin, was as protective as they came, always worrying about her. He hadn’t wanted her to work at the restaurant, worried that her shifter blood would be too potent for the vampires. Her parents had shared his worries, but she’d been adamant about making her own choices. She might only be twenty-three, but she felt confident that she could handle herself in any situation. Vampires were stronger and faster than humans, but so were tiger shifters. Her brother and father had ensured she knew how to defend herself in both her human and tigress forms.
While Tymon and Zia went back to their guard duties, Aeryn clocked in for her shift on the tablet attached to the kitchen's sidewall. The restaurant employed humans and vampires and a few other supernatural creatures like Zia and Tymon, but Aeryn was the only shifter. She’d just graduated from culinary school, and her dream had been to be the head pastry chef in an upscale restaurant. If it weren’t for her cousin Cyrus, who was mated to a vampire, she wouldn’t have known about the job opportunity.
The scariest thing she’d ever done was make dessert for Mishka and Harmony—the master vampire and his beloved mate, a musical muse. She’d been so worried about blowing it that her whole body had been one big trembling nerve. She’d made a frozen dessert for Mishka out of SyBl, a blood substitute used by vampires, and a dark chocolate torte with sugared raspberries for Harmony. The praise from a five-hundred-year-old vampire and his beautiful mate had made Aeryn preen like a peacock, and when he’d offered her the job as head pastry chef, she’d practically roared her happiness.
In the two weeks that she’d been working at the restaurant, she’d not only come to really enjoy the night shift, but she’d gotten a better understanding of vampires. She’d been raised to believe they couldn’t control themselves around shifters, but that had been proven wrong really fast. The vampires who worked there and came to dine didn’t care what she was inside; they only cared that she could turn synthetic blood into a gelato-type dessert molded into unique shapes.
“Hey,” Felon, a psychic who liked to tease people about their futures with fake prophecies, said as he walked into the kitchen.
“How are ya?” she asked.
“Good. Tired as hell. I was up late watching the stock market.”
She chuckled. Felon was wealthy beyond anyone’s imagining, but he played the stock market like a man with a drug habit that needed to be satisf
ied. “How did your stocks do?”
“Meh on a few of them, but I made enough on the others to ride it out. What’s on the menu tonight?”
She explained the special desserts for the night—a molded SyBl dish that looked like a water lily with real dried blood flakes and a smoothie made of whipped SyBl and frozen SyBl. Then she explained the three traditional desserts, including her brother’s favorite five-layer chocolate cake.
“Sounds good,” Felon said. “What do you want me to start on?”
“Get a couple gallons of SyBl into the ice cream freezer, so we’re ready for the smoothies and people who want it straight up like ice cream.”
“On it. When’s the first table seating?”
She walked to the tablet and checked out the reservations. The restaurant opened an hour after sunset, which in June was nine p.m. “Ten fifteen, a two-top, both vampires.”
She and Felon worked alone until sunset when the vampire employees clocked in for the evening. Boyd and Verona would join them in the kitchen, and Serenade, the hostess, would open the front doors.
By the time the sun had set, she’d gotten four of the chocolate cakes assembled and ready to be cut and plated and had used the food dehydrator to turn blood into flakes.
“Evening, Miss Aeryn,” Boyd, a hundred-year-old vampire with a southern accent and good manners straight out of the South, said as he came into the kitchen.
“Hi, Boyd.”
“What’s on the menu tonight?” he asked as he tied his apron around his waist.
Verona walked in behind him, so Aeryn waited until she joined them to tell them about the dishes. After giving them their assignments, Aeryn worked on the second traditional dessert—a caramel apple tart with homemade caramel sauce. Once the doors opened and diners were seated, Aeryn didn’t have a moment to think about anything except desserts. She barely had time to stop for her break, which she ate standing up as she looked over the dessert recipes for future nights so she could ensure the daytime staff, who shopped for fresh supplies, were able to get what she needed.
“Chocolate lava cakes?” Felon asked as he stopped next to her. “Cool.”
She looked at him. “I want to try something in the coming week.”
“Okay. What?”
“I want to try dyeing the SyBl.”
His brows went high. “Dyeing it what color? And why?”
“It’s going to be the Fourth of July soon. Mishka donated fireworks to the city, and it’s going to be spectacular. I just thought it would be neat to be able to make a red, white, and blue SyBl dessert.”
“I don’t think you can turn red liquids white.”
“Maybe not, but we could lighten it in some way perhaps. I’m just thinking out loud.”
He hummed. “The smoothie was two different colors because of the way we handled them. The whipped SyBl turns almost pink.”
“I’ll experiment with it some. Maybe if nothing else, we’ll have some interesting SyBl colors for a while.”
He laughed. “You and your imagination. I’ve never worked with a pastry chef who had more interesting ideas.”
“Even more interesting than the stock market?”
He pinched his finger and thumb close together. “Almost.”
She shook her head at him as he walked away and finished her bowl of beef stew. She returned to her station and got back to work.
By the time they’d served the last dessert, Aeryn was wiped out. She and her baking brigade boxed up the leftover real desserts and took them over to the club, where they gave them to the coven’s private chef. Marcus had been happy when Aeryn asked if he’d like to use the leftovers for the meals he prepared for the human and shifter mates and workers for the coven. She just liked knowing that no food was going to waste.
She put the box of two caramel apple tarts and one slice of chocolate cake on her car's passenger seat and sat behind the wheel. Her parents and Gavin would love the leftovers.
She stared at the club for a moment and then put the car into gear and left downtown. Whisper Springs was calling her name, and she couldn’t wait to get home.
Chapter Two
Merrix Fellows stepped outside from the club and looked up at the sky. It was an hour until dawn, and it had been a long night. He was the number two male for the Cleveland coven’s construction company, headed by his friend and boss, Cyrus. Merrix oversaw the final touches for their latest project: a new stage in Fang’s main area. The stage was home to the club’s house band—Fluffy Venom—whose lead singer was the master vampire's beloved mate.
Merrix liked going to the club, and being part of the renovation team for the stage had been interesting work. On Friday night, the band would perform on the new stage for the first time. Cyrus had invited the whole crew to take the night off and enjoy the show. Merrix was looking forward to it very much.
He jogged across the street to the coven’s apartment complex and entered the security code to enter the building. Three more codes later, he was in his apartment and ready to call it a night. His phone buzzed as he unlaced his work boots, and he saw it was Cyrus.
“Hey, man.”
“I just missed you. How’s it look for Friday?”
“Great. We’re getting the cleaning done tomorrow night, and then Harmony and the band are practicing Thursday before the club opens to make sure the sound system is good to go.”
“Excellent. You’ve done a great job spearheading the stage rebuild.”
“Thanks.”
“Next week, we’re starting the hotel project. I’ll need you to be a big part of that too.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s have dinner at Bistro Rouge on Thursday.”
Merrix’s brows rose. “Sure.”
Cyrus chuckled. “It’s time for your ninety-day review. It’s strictly a formality, so I don’t want you to worry about it, all right? I figure we can grab something to eat—or you can get something to drink—and I’ll get to say hi to my favorite cousin.”
“The tigress who works in the kitchen?”
“Yep. Aeryn.”
Merrix hadn’t met Aeryn, but then again, he hadn’t been to the restaurant since Cyrus had brought the construction crew there after it opened for a special thank-you meal for a job well done. She’d apparently been hired recently and was the head pastry chef.
“Do you want me to make a reservation?”
“Nah. Cella already did, so it’s a good thing you said yes.”
Merrix laughed. “What time?”
“Eleven.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Have a good day. See you tomorrow.”
“Same to you.”
Merrix ended the call and tossed his phone on the coffee table. Three months ago, he worked for the construction company when the coven’s enemy—the First Church of Humanity—had bombed the restaurant. Cyrus had been close to death, and his beloved Cella had asked for volunteers to feed him to save his life. Merrix had been one of the volunteers. He’d never turned someone before, but because Cyrus was nearly drained of blood, he’d needed more than one vampire to bring him back. He and Merrix had become good friends after that, and when Cyrus had taken over the construction company at Mishka’s request, he’d made Merrix his assistant.
His phone buzzed, and he saw a text from his mother. It was a picture of her with a baby. The text read: She’s a doll, isn’t she? She’s in the daycare. Tell me I’m close to being a grandma. I’m very anxious to be one.
Rolling his eyes at his mom, he texted back. I’m not dating anyone right now, sorry.
Who said date? You could find a nice female to carry a child for you. You’re going to run out of time.
True. As a newly turned vampire, Merrix had only ten years to father a child before losing the ability. He was turned five years ago by his stepfather, Gennaro.
I can’t believe you’re suggesting I have sex with a female just to have a baby. You’ve come a long way from the female who wouldn’t l
et me have a girl in my room when I was a teenager.
That’s entirely different, and you know it. I could set you up with someone from work.
Aren’t they all mated?
I mean one of the workers.
I’ll think about it. I’m not a baby factory.
She added a few emojis, including a kissy face. Love you.
Love you too. Say hi to Dad for me.
You bet.
He rose to his feet and headed for the bathroom, stripping as he went and dropping his clothes in the hamper. His mom was very good at teasing him, but he knew it came from a place of love because she understood how much he wanted to start a family. And she wasn’t wrong-—he was running out of time—but he wasn’t about to just bang some random female until she got pregnant and then try to raise the baby by himself. He didn’t just want a baby, he wanted to find his truemate, and he hoped she’d be his beloved mate so they could be together without him needing to turn her.
A handful of coven members had found their beloveds. The difference between a beloved mate and a truemate was that after the couple shared blood, the beloved bond allowed the non-vampire mate to take on the mantle of immortality without being turned. It also allowed them to share each other’s memories. He’d take his female however he could get her—truemate or beloved.
His mom’s teasing only flamed the desire he had to find his forever female.
She was out there somewhere. He just had to find her. Some males he knew had waited centuries. His friend, Bellamin, was over two hundred before he found Kelly. Brone was over one thousand before he and Arissa crossed paths, and Mishka was over five hundred when he and Harmony got together. Merrix had only been a vamp for a handful of years. So, while it seemed impossible that he might find his one right female soon, he sure as hell hoped that was the case.