In this excerpt from Quebecoiswolf’s WEREWOLVES VERSUS: ROMANCE story, a wealthy vampire escorts a werewolf celebrity around his father’s casino, while considering taking a gamble of his own.
She smiles and climbs to her feet, drink in hand. I guide her out to the casino floor. Even at dawn, there are a few gamblers out, putting their money in my dad’s pocket. The handful who are pretty enough or have special skills are being silently pushed to keep gambling, their thoughts lost in the religious fervor of the gambler, so certain that they’re just one well-placed chip on the felt or one spin of the wheel away from reversing their fortunes.
“This is the main floor. The Nubian is the second largest casino on the strip and was the very first to open after the families of the Nevada Freehold decided to move the strip underground, so that vampires and humans alike could be out on the town twenty four hours a day.”
Regina smiles, but glances over her shoulder, as if afraid of being stalked.
“Sorry…” she says. “I’m so afraid that Nurse or my mom are going to pop up behind me or something.”
“Nurse was that Minnesotans, right?”
She nods, taking a long slurp on her straw, draining the last dregs of blood, booze, and sugar.
I continue explaining the history and engineering of the Nevada Strip, but it’s all scripted and rehearsed. What I’m really thinking about is the mention of her Minnesotans bodyguard and Mark Gillette’s two massive yet thoroughly-tamed performing werewolves. And it makes me wonder… what would happen if I bit a Lupus Sapiens Kaisar? Why would it be any different? Because the question that’s been on the mind of every vampire for almost a century – since the Great Rising – is: what the hell are the Kaisars doing right that they’re ruling over a major nation in a world that rightfully belongs to vampires? What powers do they really have? They’re not as big as Minnesotans, not as numerous as Medius, and not infectious like Formosi. Their only real strength seems to be money and factory space. Werewolves or not, surely some vampire somewhere has gotten close enough to take a bite. But maybe Regina is the only one who’s gotten far enough away from her bodyguards to make biting possible. Or maybe I’m too late and there’s a vampire behind the scenes pulling all the Kaisars around like puppets. Or maybe what makes the Kaisars special is that fanging them doesn’t work at all.
But what would it hurt to try?
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