Monthly Bonus Content #2 — Adam Version (Patreon)

“We’re in position,” Adam whispers, hunching down low against the tree. The leaves are lush and thick, providing cover to camouflage his muscled frame, but also add a tangy warm aroma to the area. It’s enough to almost distract him for a second.

Morgan’s footsteps pad up softly beside him, light enough that a human would never hear them, even with her feet encased in thick-soled black boots.

Adam casts a glance down at the bulky shoes, the black laces partly undone. “Those are a tripping hazard.”

“You’re going to get upset about my fashion choices now?” she asks. Her fingers dip into the pocket of her dark jeans, the fabric far too tight to offer any use in a combat situation.

“You should have dressed more suitably,” he chides.

She scoffs as a flame erupts from her lighter. “So we should all dress like you? Bland and functional?”

His lips purse for a mere second before he glances down from the slight incline they’re on to the building below. It’s a flat, unassuming building. Large windows panel the entrance, but they are blacked out, obscuring the dangers that may lie within.

“Are there many guards?” Nate’s voice asks through the earpiece.

Adam flinches. Although the Agency make earpieces specifically designed for vampires—to help dampen the burst of sound in one’s ear drum—it still vibrates and aches inside his mind to wear it for so long.

Morgan discarded hers an hour ago.

Adam did not chide her for that.

“No,” Adam answers, scanning the concrete patio in front of the building. “Seems they are not expecting us.”

“At least that’s something,” Nate breathes.

“Jeez, you lot are way too slow. I’m already inside,” Farah comments through the earpiece, the grin on her words made more obvious by the slight echo of her voice. She must be inside the storage room as planned. She truly is far ahead of the rest of them with their plans.

“Good work,” Adam states with a nod.

Morgan shuffles forward, leaning close in order to peer over Adam’s crouched body towards the lay of the land below. “Now all we have to do is get inside the front.”

“There’s only one person there.” He nods a head at the human sat at a desk near the front doors. A scanner is placed beside them. “They must be checking people’s validity for being on the premises.”

“One of us is going to have to give them a reason not to be checking while the other sneaks in behind,” Morgan states.

Adam glances back at her with a brow cocked.

She smirks. “Charm them.”

A snort of breath escapes Adam at the notion. “Nate is not here to perform that task, and Farah is already inside.”

“Which is why I said one of us is going to have to do it,” she repeats with a shake of her head.

Adam’s stomach twists and churns. People are not his forte…unless he’s taking them down.

Morgan slips her fingers into the cramped confines of her pocket again and tugs out a coin. The bronze disc tries to glimmer in the dappled light, but it lost its luster long ago.

“Flip for it?” she asks.

She’s already flicked it into the air before he can answer.

It twirls upwards before tumbling down, landing in Morgan’s open waiting palm, which she slaps onto the top of her other hand.

“Head or tails?”

“This is not—”

“Fine. Tails.” She lifts her hands and smiles. “Looks like you’re up.”

Adam groans.

--

Stepping out of the bushes, Adam brushes down his trousers with a couple of sweeps of his hands, dislodging the sticks and branches that had caught there.

It seems appropriate to at least be free of debris if he’s really got a chance at pulling this off.

“Disconnecting communications with Nate and Farah,” Adam mumbles before switching the channels on his earpiece so only Morgan can hear him. She'd reluctantly put her communicator back in before he'd left.

He doesn’t need play-by-play comments from those two. More specifically, Farah.

His boots thud solidly against the flat concrete, the stability helping to ease him, even as his palms sweat. He presses his hands to his thighs and sucks in a breath, finding the fresh aroma of the foliage once again to help ground him.

The desk clerk glances up at his approach, glances back down, and then quickly back up. Their eyes widen, a flush of pink heat travelling across their porcelain cheeks and neck. They brush a quick hand through their short hair to tidy it.

Adam can feel the waves of attraction from here. Smell it like perfume. Taste it like sweetness against his tongue.

It’s not a sensation that he revels in, even if it occurs regularly with humans he meets, and he works hard to hold his frown in check.

He leans a hand on the desk. It creaks beneath him.

“Well…hello there…” he begins.

Morgan snickers through the earpiece. “That’s what you’re opening with?”

Adam ignores her. “You, uh…,” he rubs down his neck as nerves make his throat dry, “you come here often?”

“Shit, we’re never getting in…” Morgan mumbles.

Adam ignores her again, instead sweeping his green gaze back to the desk clerk.

They tilt their head to look up at him with a frown. “This is my job. I’m always here.”

“Right. Of course,” he stumbles. The attraction that had been floating around them like flutters of a butterfly’s wings turn sour as the clerk examines him closer.

He’s losing them.

He stands straighter, flexing his biceps as he folds his arms, and forces a smile onto his lips. He can feel his cheeks dimple, even with the false expression.

It’s enough to win their entire attention back, as well as a definite flush of hormones to radiate from them like an aura. The strength of it batters against him, and he shifts uncomfortably on the spot.

They clear their throat and lean back in their chair, almost toppling backwards. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you visiting?”

“Maybe I’ve been here before and you’ve just not noticed?” Adam replies. He can hear the soft pad of footsteps about twenty feet away. Morgan is on the move.

Hopefully this experience won’t have to last much longer…

“Oh, I definitely would have noticed you,” the clerk purrs, arching forward and pursing their lips.

Is everyone better at this than he? He avoids groaning at the intrusive thought.

His cheeks strain with the effort of holding the smile. “I’ll, uh, I guess I should take that as a compliment?” He didn’t mean for his voice to pitch so high at the end and clears his throat.

They flash a smile of their own, much more genuine and meaningful than Adam’s. “You should.”

When they reach out towards him, that’s when Adam retreats.

“Well, good day to you!” He flees, thankful that no one can see him scurry away from the slight desk clerk as though they were a fully-armed enemy.

“I can’t say that was smooth. You’re certainly no Nate,” Morgan comments through the earpiece.

Adam finally lets the frown fold over his features as he shakes away the nausea that swirls inside of him. “We speak nothing of this to the others. Understood?”

“I’ve got your back,” Morgan replies…though it doesn’t stop the chuckle at the end of her words.