Forbidden (Vampire Beloved Book Seven)

By R.E. Butler

Pamela Thomas is living a lie and she’s terrified of discovery. When her boss, Jason Finnegan—head of the anti-vampire group the First Church of Humanity—tasked her with infiltrating the coven to destroy them, she’d foolishly hoped to be finished within a week. A month later, she was no closer to helping Jason take down the coven than before she started. And worse? She finds herself constantly fighting feelings for a vampire named Ven. Fearing if she doesn’t get away from the coven soon, she’ll be compelled by Ven and turned against her will.

Vampire Ven’s watched all his friends find their beloved mates in the last few years. He’s the only remaining single male in the family, and he’s damn lonely. Until he feels compelled to go into the club during the day and finds a beautiful human female working as a custodian. He knows the reason he’s drawn to her is that she’s his truemate, but the standoffish female wants nothing to do with him. He plans to do everything in his power to win her affections, and he starts by upgrading her living situation from the hellhole she’d been renting to one of the coven’s private residences downtown.

Pamela—who goes by Ela when she’s working at the club—doesn’t know what to think as Ven slowly wins her over. Her whole adult life, she’s been told that vampires only want to kill and destroy, but Ven seems very intent on being amazing to her. A first kiss turns into much more, and she finds herself battling internally between staying true to Jason and his cause and falling head-first for the sexy vampire. When her connection to the church comes out and she learns firsthand how Jason treats his enemies, she’ll have to decide whether the love blooming in her heart for Ven is worth everything. Maybe even her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.E. Butler
• Release date: Aug 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005989132

R.E. Butler

I write for the readers who stay up past their bedtime, telling themselves "just one more chapter" long after the lights should be out. The ones who fall in love with fictional characters, escape into magical worlds, and crave protective heroes who would do anything for their women. My love for paranormal romance started as a young mom reading ebooks in the middle of the night, drawn to the monsters who were more than villains—they were heroes. Inspired by shifters and fated mates, I set a goal in 2011 to publish my first book. Over 100 books later, I'm still creating the kind of stories I love to read. Now, I spend my days dreaming up protective heroes, captivating heroines, and the happily ever afters they fight for, often while walking with my pup coworker and plotting my next book. I write for readers who love adventure, passion, and a touch of magic—because I'm still that girl under the covers, reading by flashlight, lost in another world.

Book preview

Pamela Thomas pushed the heavy janitorial cart through the empty vampire club. She was sweaty and tired. She hadn’t ever worked so hard in her life, and she’d also never hated a job so much. It would be one thing if she liked vampires, but she both loathed and feared them. Her mentor and friend Jason Finnegan, creator and head of the First Church of Humanity, had saved her life when vampires attacked her family. Her parents had lost their lives, but she’d lived thanks to Jason’s quick thinking.

She’d been with him ever since.

That was how many years ago?

Six.

She’d been eighteen at the time. The night out on the town in Sacramento had been her birthday celebration. Now it marked the anniversary of the date she lost everything.

Jason was her family now, but she was quickly running out of good thoughts when it came to him. A month ago, he’d stuck her here, forcing her to infiltrate the vampire coven as a daytime custodian, changing her name from Pamela Thomas to Ela Smith. She was getting used to being called Ela, and she might even like it as a nickname. But she hated where she was, and Jason knew it. He knew how scared she was of the vampires, but he wouldn’t let her quit until she got wireless cameras planted inside the coven’s offices. The problem? Humans needed special clearance to access the offices, and she wasn’t anywhere near that level.

She was in constant fear of discovery, despite wearing a magically protected bracelet given to her by a dark wizard. It covered her like a blanket, preventing vampires or supernatural creatures like witches from knowing what her real thoughts and feelings were. There was a protection spell around the club, and if she weren’t wearing the bracelet, she wouldn’t be able to even step a foot inside without being electrocuted by some kind of magic. So far, she hadn’t been shocked when she walked into the club, and—knock on wood—no vampire had ever thought she was anything but a cleaning lady.

A rumbling noise behind her made her pull up short with a squeak of alarm. She looked over her shoulder and saw one of the trolls, a daytime guard for the coven. They patrolled the club inside and out. They were enormous with big, meaty forearms and a bulldog face. She’d been terrified of them at first, but over the last month, she’d come to see that they were harmless to people who weren’t trying to harm them and were extremely protective of the people they guarded. They were a live and let live sort of bunch, and she was okay with that. She was just a worker trying to make a living as far as they knew.

She turned and leaned against her cart with a sigh. Hi, Dehni. How’s your night going?

Good. Ela, he said with a nod of his big head. Tired?

Ela blew out a breath and rubbed at the back of her sweaty and aching neck. Yeah.

He lumbered to her, and she stepped out of the way, curious what he was planning. He pushed the cart forward, moving the heavy, wheeled contraption as if it weighed nothing. Where. Go?

"The family room," she said.

The family room was a glass-enclosed room up a set of stairs within the club. The family—head vampire Mishka’s inner circle—consisted of several vampires and their mates. She didn’t know the names of everyone in the family, just Mishka, the head of security Brone, who was a freaky-looking bald guy with purple eyes and double fangs, and the heads of the club staff—Traz and Avery.

Dehni pushed the cart to the bottom of the stairs and smiled down at her. Ela. Rest.

She let out a mirthless laugh. If only he knew the sleepless night that lay ahead for her. The apartment Jason had rented for her was, in a word, horrifying. He said it was the only one close enough to the club so she could walk, which meant quick in and out without needing to park a car, and it was all human, as opposed to some of the other apartment complexes that housed vampires. The problem with the all-human complex was that it was filled with drug dealers, addicts, and prostitutes. She was constantly afraid and slept with a stun gun under her pillow. Just getting into her apartment felt like walking through a battlefield.

Putting on a smile she didn’t feel, she patted Dehni on his big forearm. "You’re very sweet. Thank you for your help, and I will rest tonight."

He nodded and gave her a smile full of huge fangs. Bye.

She waved at him and turned to the cart, lifting the vacuum and cleaning supplies’ box. With a grunt, she walked slowly up the steps and used her security card to access the family room. Her card, she’d learned recently, only worked during the daytime. So if she came to the club during the night, she wouldn’t be able to get into the family room or have access to the offices. She was actually okay with that. She didn’t want to see any of the vampires. It was weird enough working with the daytime staff of trolls and other humans who seemed to enjoy working for the vampires.

The only bright spot? The pay was excellent.

The problem? Jason confiscated her pay to—in his words—use in the fight against the vampires. Even if she’d wanted to use her salary to get better housing, she didn’t have anything in her account except enough to pay for food. Jason paid her rent and utilities, using the rest of the money for who the hell knew what.

She set the supplies on the bar and got to work, first vacuuming, then dusting, and finally cleaning every surface and piece of glass in the place. It was her biggest job, and one she didn’t mind. She felt rather safe in the glass-enclosed room because no one could sneak up on her.

She’d set a few cameras in the room when she’d first started. Jason told her the cameras were useless because the vampires never talked about work or anything important.

Her phone buzzed and she saw it was him. Lifting the phone to her ear, she sat down on one of the plush couches and said, Speak of the devil.

Oh?

I was just thinking how I can’t wait to be done with this job.

Well, you can be done when you do what you’re supposed to.

It could take months for me to get the level of clearance you want me to have. She did not intend to stay there that long.

What about the trolls?

What about them?

Don’t they have access to the offices? You should try to seduce one of them and take his ID badge.

She full-body shivered. She liked the trolls. They were sweet and kind and very protective. They’d been amazing to her. But they were one hundred percent not compatible with humans for romantic purposes, not to mention that she was flat out not even the tiniest iota attracted to them.

First, not just no, but hell no. And second, they don’t have access to the offices during the daytime either.

There was a long pause, and then his voice went very low and dangerous. If I tell you to fuck someone, you’ll do it.

She rose to her feet as anger surged through her. I’m doing the best I can to get you what you need, but you can be sure that if I tell you I won’t sleep with someone, then I’m not going to do it, and you can’t make me. Now I have to get back to work. She ended the call and silenced the phone so she wouldn’t hear it if he called back.

Returning to her tasks, she finished cleaning the family room, hustled down the steps, and headed to the bathrooms. This was the least glamorous job she’d ever had, but at least she was by herself. The other custodians were working in various parts of the club, the coven-owned restaurant next door, as well as the main sleeping area. When she’d first come to the club, she hadn’t realized that dozens of coven members lived there. The family lived underground, and she would never ever have the kind of clearance needed to get down there. But the other coven members could live in a large room within the club that was full of cubicles and shared a dorm-style set of bathrooms. She was lucky she didn’t have to clean the bathrooms in there. All those sleeping vampires.

What if one woke up? What if she was in there cleaning and one of them got hungry for a snack? She shivered at the thought.

Well, she hadn’t always hated vampires. But having her parents slaughtered by them had certainly changed her mind. They needed to go, every last one of them. If she could just get inside the offices and plant the bugs, Jason could take the next step in his master plan to eradicate the Cleveland coven.

They would fall eventually, she was sure.

She just hoped she was there to see it happen.

Ven had been a vampire for two hundred and...how many?...years, and it was the first time in his damn long life that he was having trouble sleeping. Normally the sun rose, and he was ready to sleep the day away, but for the last few weeks, he’d struggled to even get in a few hours of rest.

He had no clue what was going on, but it sure was a bitch.

Swinging his legs around, he looked at his phone and found it was four p.m.

The sun wouldn’t be setting for a couple more hours, but he could get dressed and go into the office and get some work done. He headed to the en suite bathroom in his chamber and showered, his thoughts drifting to the work ahead. He was part of coven master Mishka’s inner circle known as the family, and unfortunately, the last unmated member. His friends had all found beloved mates, and his heart ached at the thought of how lonely he was and how much longer he’d have to wait to find his mate.

Vampires generally had a truemate, which was the person they chose to share their life with. When mated, a truemate obtained the vampire’s immortality, their lives became tied together. But his friends had found their beloved mates, which was the truemate on steroids. Not only did the mate gain immortality, but they also shared memories, immediately acquiring all the knowledge from their mate. It had come in handy in a few instances where the mate had no fighting or defensive skills but could access the memories of their beloved vampire and use them.

He grimaced at the lovey-dovey thoughts traipsing through his head. He did not need to be thinking about finding his mate. He knew he’d find her eventually but thinking about love always made him long for it even more. It didn’t help that he was tired and having trouble controlling his emotions because of it.

Finishing his shower, he dried off and dressed in what he thought of as his work uniform: dark jeans and a button-down, rolled up to the elbows.

He grabbed a SyBl from the mini fridge in his chamber and cracked the lid as he walked out into the hall. He fed on human blood once a week and drank synthetic blood the rest of the time. He’d fed a few days ago, so it was the fake stuff for him, which was fine and did the job of meeting his needs, but it sure didn’t taste like the real thing.

In the elevator at the end of the hall, he pressed the button to go to the first floor. It opened inside the coven’s offices, where he had a private office. He was the finance guy. An accounting firm oversaw Mishka’s personal funds, but Ven managed everything from payroll to supplies for the coven.

He set the bottle of SyBl on the desk and sat in the chair, swiveling to face the monitor. Booting up his computer, he leaned back and rested his hands on his stomach.

The urge to go out into the club struck unexpectedly.

It was light-tight so that he could go anywhere he wanted without running into any sunlight. But the thought itself was odd. Why the hell would he want to go out into the club?

He pushed the thought away and straightened as the computer finished booting up and he was able to click on the email icon.

Glancing at the door, he again had the thought to go out to the club.

But why?

Letting out a grunt, he rose to his feet and grabbed the SyBl, draining the bottle. He carried it to the small office cafeteria and dropped it into the recycle bin. He paused, trying to sort out his feelings. Something was pulling him into the club, but he had no clue what it might be.

Deciding it was better to go and see what was driving him nuts suddenly, he left the cafeteria and walked down the hall, passing everyone’s dark offices. The reception desk was dark as well, and he caught a glimpse of a troll patrolling the corridor outside of reception.

Ven pushed open the door and smiled up at the big troll. Hello.

Heh-low, the male answered, pushing a lock of stringy hair out of his eyes.

Everything look good out here?

Yes.

Good. I’m going to take a walk.

Day. Time, he said, his brow furrowing.

I’m going to stay in the club, don’t worry.

The male nodded slowly and resumed his patrol. Trolls were interesting creatures. Slow speaking but intelligent and loyal to a fault. They could not be bribed to harm someone in their care, making them excellent daytime protectors for the coven.

Ven walked down the long hall to the coat check, which