Chapter 103

Tessa’s POV

“Your memory is shit, Nate,” Carter laughed, taking another big bite of his food. “Also, we aren’t your caretaker. Set an alarm if you want to get here early.”

The man, Nate, was still staring at me blankly. Then, I saw the movement of his nose.

I flushed.

He was smelling me.

“Don’t you remember me telling you that Joseph was bringing a human guest?” Carter continued, peering over at him with a frown.

After another pause of silence, Nate’s eyes flashed recognition.

“Oh, right,” he said, glancing down his plate. “Just didn’t think her scent would slap me in the face.”

What did that mean?

I looked at Joseph who was glaring at Nate with a grimace.

“Tessa, this is Nathanial,” Joseph said through his teeth. “He can be a prick when he wants to be.”

“I’m just honest,” Nate said, shrugging as he took a bite of his food. “I’m cranky when I don’t have my bacon.”

“Here,” I said, sliding my plate closer to him. “You can take some of mine.”

He looked puzzled by my gesture. Joseph reached toward my plate and grabbed it, pulling it back in front of me.

“You need to eat,” he murmured.

“I had plenty of food,” I assured him. “Plus, I took a couple extra pieces of bacon. I’m not going to eat them, and it’d be a shame if they went to waste.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Nate said as he reached across me and sniped a couple of pieces of bacon off my plate.

He grinned at Joseph as he shoved an entire piece of bacon into his mouth.

“I like her,” he said with his mouthful. “I have to go through. I forgot to set my alarm, and nobody thought to wake me. I’m late for work.”

He quickly shoved the rest of his food in his mouth and chugged his coffee before quickly standing to his feet.

“You forgot your manners as well,” Bernard said through gritted teeth. It was then I realized that Bernard was scowling angrily at him.

Nate noticed too because I saw the color draining from his features.

“Sorry, Eldest,” he said, lowering his gaze. “I wasn’t meaning to be rude. I’m just late.”

Bernard said nothing. He watched as Nate quickly gathered his things and hurried from the dining hall.

I looked at Joseph with a curious look.

“What does he do for work?” I found myself asking.

Joseph glanced at me briefly before looking back down at his plate.

“I guess in the human world he would be considered Human Resources,” Joseph answered. “Except for vampires.”

“Resources?” I asked, raising my brows.

“He’s in charge of our villagers and making sure they have everything they need. He also handles conflicts and complaints,” Joseph explained.

“He acts as a therapist too,” Anna continued for him. “So, if one of our villagers has any emotional needs, he’s there for them. Whether they need someone to vent to or whatnot.”

That was amazing to hear. I had no idea they had something like that in a vampire village.

“His office is here in the Vamp house,” Joseph explained. “But he also hunts and gathers food with some other villagers. He helps grow crops and stuff.”

“Wow,” I breathed. “I can see how he’d be busy.”

“The gardens grow behind the Vamp house, and he has to tend to them early, so he usually stays in his apartment upstairs,” Carter muttered. “And because I live with him, he expects me to wake him up when I’m here.”

“Let’s not overwhelm her too much,” Anna said, eyeing me carefully. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions. But it’s probably better if we didn’t speak of vampire business out in the open like this. How about we discuss more of this tonight? We can sit in the sitting room this evening and answer anything you want to know.”

Bernard tensed at her words, and I could tell he didn’t want to tell me anything. But he chose to stay silent as he continued eating his food.

I looked up at Joseph just in time to see him give Anna a nod and she returned it with a smile before eating her food.

“I got to go too. It’s a training day,” Carter said, chugging the rest of his orange juice before standing and leaving. “The others are waiting for me.”

Just then a woman came to our table. She appeared young, maybe mid-twenties. She had fair skin and pale blue eyes with long lashes. Her curly blonde hair was tied out of her face but hung down her back.

I somehow knew right away that she was human.

I hoped that the humans of the tribe would be explained later tonight because that was a huge question that I had.

“Good morning, Elders,” she said kindly as she cleared the table of Carter and Nate’s empty plates and mugs.

She must have worked here as a cleaner.

“Good morning, Julie,” Anna said kindly.

She was kind to everyone it appeared.

Both Bernard and Joseph only gave her head nods. She blushed when she glanced at Joseph which caused my brows to shoot up. Then her eyes found mine and they widened. She quickly pulled her eyes away and scrambled to clean up the rest of the mess before scurrying away from our table.

It was like she was afraid of me.

“What was that about?” I asked, looking up at Joseph.

He appeared unbothered.

“She’s confused,” he answered. “It’s not often a human visit as a guest.”

What?

I wanted to ask what he meant, but I had a gut intuition telling me to keep my question to myself and not ask anything more. I pressed my lips together and kept my eyes fixed on my plate.

“We should get going as well. We have a lot to do today,” Bernard said, standing to his feet. Anna was cleaning up her mess and then started to clean Bernard’s. “It was… um… nice to meet you, Tessa,” he said to me to my surprise before glancing at Joseph. “Come to my office later.”

Joseph nodded to him in agreement and watched as they left the dining hall.

“They seem like an interesting bunch,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Joseph gave me a lopsided smile.

“They are,” he said. He spoke like he was holding back a laugh. “Bernard will come around. He’s just concerned for the tribe, which I understand. Nate is just an asshole all the time which is funny because his job is to not be and if he wanted to he could make it so others are extremely comfortable around him. But when he’s not working, he turns that ability off.”

“He has the ability to make people comfortable?” I asked, astonished.

He nodded.

“It makes it easier for him to get others to talk. Plus, he’s in charge of the villagers and they need to be open and honest with him for him to get anything done. It’s easier to be honest with someone when you are comfortable around them.”

“That’s amazing,” I breathed.

He smirked.

“All elders were gifted with specific abilities. But we will get into it later. Anna was right. It’s better if we didn’t discuss it out in the open. Most are aware of how powerful we are, but they don’t know the gist of it. We worry they would fear us if they knew.”

“What about the other humans?” I found myself asking, narrowing my eyes at him. “Will that be addressed later? I want to know why humans are living here and how it was possible. I thought vampires were hidden in the mountains to get away from the humans.”

“These humans are different,” he murmured, looking away from me.

I knew whatever he wanted to say was lost on his lips. He was afraid of something but of what, I wasn’t sure. I placed my hand on his bicep and made him look into my eyes.

“What’s going on?” I asked, a timid frown on my lips.

He suddenly stood up.

“Come on,” he said, walking away from the table. I frowned and quickly followed after him.

“What about our plates and stuff?:” I asked, looking back at our plates still on the table.

“They will take care of them,” he said without turning back.

“Where are we going?” I asked just as we left the dining hall and went back out into the main foyer.

“I’ll show you my upstairs apartment,” he answered. “Then, I’ll explain to you about these humans.”