The Vessel

The Vessel

By Ofelia Gränd

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2023 Ofelia Gränd

ISBN 9781685506230

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Thank you to Gabi Cervenka and Leonie Duncan!

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The Vessel

By Ofelia Gränd

Chapter 1

Sadek Verity stood unmoving as a man about his size stumbled in through the door. Sadek wasn’t small, and few humans were as big as he was. You didn’t work as a doorman in a nightclub like The Ruby Tooth if you couldn’t handle yourself, and size helped diffuse some conflicts. The Ruby Tooth was the only chain approved by the supernatural council to have a mixed clientele—shifters, vampires, witches, and humans were welcome.

The humans didn’t know there were other species than them, or most of them didn’t know, at least. He suspected the one who was looking him up and down right this moment did. Their gazes met and Sadek’s heart gave a double beat.

The man was nothing special, dark hair, dark stubble on his cheeks, his clothes loved rather than fashionable, but his eyes…His eyes held a thousand sorrows, and the energy around him crackled.

Sadek didn’t have a developed sense of smell, nothing like a shifter, but the small room between the doors to the two different sides of the nightclub filled with the scent of ozone. He took a steadying breath as he prepared to look into the man’s soul. He’d been convinced the man was human, but ozone…only magic users smelled of ozone.

The man gave him a flirty grin at odds with the look in his eyes. The grin slipped away as Sadek reached into his soul—good or bad? He sifted through the turmoil of emotions, impressions, and urges. Evaluated his impulse control and delved deeper. For a moment, he didn’t know where he ended, and the man began. It was harder to climb out than it normally was, and Sadek suppressed a shudder. To the right.

The man nodded and swayed before stumbling toward the right. There was something wrong. Sadek couldn’t see what it was, and that was disturbing. He could always see. It was what he did. He looked into people’s souls and knew if they were good or bad. It was his job, but also what they did as a species. He was a veritas. He saw the truth. He was always certain. It only took a second. One quick dip inside, and the answer was right there…except something was wrong here.

The man’s energy had been doused in an oily, sinister substance. Not a substance, exactly, but it left Sadek with an oily, uneasy feeling. Which meant he had to go to the right, but he wasn’t…evil. And yet there was something evil.

The moment the door closed behind the man; indecision curled around him. Veritas didn’t feel indecision. It was why the council had agreed to allow a nightclub chain of mixed clientele. A nightclub wasn’t allowed to open if they didn’t have a veritas doorman on duty.

He and his fellow veritas looked into the souls of the club-goers one at a time and told them which door to walk through. Pure-souled people went to the left, the not-so-pure went to the right.

Shifters and vampires almost exclusively went to the right. Some witches belonged on the left side, but there were black witches, and for some reason, they outnumbered the white witches by far. Power corrupted.

Humans mostly went to the left. It didn’t mean all humans were good, far from, but few of them had any plans of using physical strength or magic to control those around them. As a general, humans were more mild-mannered, and some even had a dash of altruism. Refreshing.

Should he have shown the man to the left? No, he couldn’t risk it. But could he risk the man being on the right side? He hadn’t been able to pinpoint any power source within him, and yet there was magic. Could he be a crossbreed of some kind? A human and a