Magic and alphas a roman.., p.118
Magic and Alphas: A Paranormal Romance Collection, page 118
I closed that door and went to the next door. This was one was cracked, so I peered through the slit in the door and saw it was some kind of office. Slowly pushing the door open enough for me to slide inside, I looked around and saw a large wooden desk that smelled new, a leather sofa, a small bookcase, and an adjoining bathroom. My shoes whispered over new-looking plush, beige carpet and I longed to remove my heels so I could feel its softness under my feet. Walking over to the desk, I had to steady myself a little as the champagne I’d slammed sort of hit me.
“Whoa,” I whispered, placing my hand on the desk.
Looking at the books on the shelf, they all seem to be medical journals and textbooks. It was then I noticed shiny plaques on the credenza, all with the name Dr. John Stoker on them from varying hospitals. I briefly wondered if this doctor was also a vampire and how he avoided working during the daylight.
“What are you doing in my husband’s office?”
I turned to see Elda standing in the doorway, dressed in a long, blue, shimmering cocktail gown. She did not look angry, just curious.
I swallowed hard and smiled. “Sorry, I must be lost.”
“It’s okay,” she said in a sultry voice with a smile. She came toward me, and before I had blinked, she was in my space.
I now had my butt up against the edge of the credenza that held all the plaques and awards. I held strong and tried to show no fear as her cold arm snaked around my bare back.
“What’s your name, honey? You’re awfully pretty.” She ran a long, red nail down my cheek.
I lifted my chin. “Ayla. What’s yours?”
“Ah, Ayla. By the light of the moon. That is a beautiful name.”
I kept up the flirtatious banter, and was convinced I could change my visions; mold them to how I see fit. “Most people don’t know that my name means that.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, and I considered grabbing for my stake, but I said instead, “You never told me your name.”
With hooded eyes, she replied lazily, “It’s Elda, honey. Damn, you smell delicious.”
“I hear that a lot,” was all I could think to say. I had sprayed on my pheromone perfume so I hoped she was referring to that.
Now she was an inch from my face, staring into my eyes. “Kiss me,” she breathed.
With a shrug, I figured it would be a great way to disarm her. I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, and all I could think about was the Katy Perry song, I Kissed A Girl, and I let her lips and tongue move around mine. I leaned down and inched my dress up in my thigh and pulled the sharpened metal shank from the strap there.
Elda’s breath picked up, and when she broke the kiss, I could see her chocolate-colored eyes had turned red, and her fangs were now out. I gasped out loud, and she smiled, gripping my chin. “Let me see if you taste as good as you smell.”
Since I had already been bitten by a vampire, and nothing really happened (well, I now smelled like one, and could fly, so I guessed something did happen), I let her sink her teeth into my neck. I could tell she was very old, as it barely stung, so she did it gently.
Before she could drain me, I groaned out a deep breath disguised as lust—and honestly, what she was doing was starting to feel real good. But I lifted the metal stake, pulled her flush against me, and then reached around with both hands to drive the stake into her back.
“What the fuck!” she screeched after removing her fangs from my neck.
I looked over to see Kellan walk into the study, right as Elda screamed and reached around to try to grasp the stake in her back. Slowly, she gave up the fight, and as the light died in her eyes, she began to crumble. I didn’t get to watch the rest as I was thrown onto the floor of the office, my head slamming on the hard wood of the desk leg.
“Ow!” I hissed.
Kellan was on top of me. “What in the fuck did you do that for?” he bellowed, pointing to Elda’s remains.
“She bit me!” I said.
“Nobody dislikes Elda’s bite. There is no way you killed her because of that,” he replied in his infuriatingly sexy accent.
“Get off me!” I yelled.
He jumped up, and with unnatural speed went to the door of the office and locked it.
I was up off the floor quickly and I swallowed hard as I realized he was locking us in. I made a beeline for the adjoining bathroom, but he blocked my way. Then I ran to Elda’s remains to retrieve my stake, but he was faster, reaching down and tossing it toward the restroom.
I lifted my chin, continuing to try to look brave, even though I was scared shitless and trembling at this point. I knew Kellan was old and could probably kill me in a split second. So I said, “How do you know her bite feels good? She do it to you often?”
The bastard had the nerve to laugh at my question. “No, little wolf, I don’t make it a habit to go shagging my boss’s wives, girlfriends, or otherwise.”
My eyes widened. “Something tells me she wasn’t a very good wife to the good doctor.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, she definitely likes women, so…”
He took his tux jacket off and removed the cufflinks from his wrists. He then unbuttoned the sleeves and rolled them to the elbow. He looked like he was preparing for a fight.
Oh crap…
“Some people do prefer both sexes. I would think a little millennial like yourself would know that.”
“You’re a dick. Let me out of here.”
“Uh, no. You just murdered my boss’s wife.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and lied, “It was self-defense.”
He looked down at her ashes, then back to me. “I didn’t particularly care for the woman myself, but you can’t go about killing people whenever you damn well please.”
“Okay. I promise not to do it again. Can I go now?”
“Not until you tell me why you killed her. The real reason.”
“No.”
He rushed over to me and slammed me onto the office’s sofa and pinned me there. I gasped at how quickly he’d done it. He murmured close to my ear, “I have been hearing whisperings that you are a hunter. Please tell me that it’s not true. You use that witch friend of yours to help you with your dirty work, do you?”
I couldn’t breathe at his close proximity. Because my legs had had nowhere else to go but spread apart, he used his hand to run it up the inside of my bare thigh as it was wrapped around his waist. I tried and failed to suppress the shiver that racked my entire body from his touch.
He then leaned down to whisper in my ear, and as he did, I could feel his hard arousal against the inside of my other thigh. “Maybe I should rip these panties from you and render you pliable and compliant, then after I make you come a few times, you’ll tell me why you murdered Elda.”
Before I could protest, he slammed his lips down on mine and molded them to my own. When his tongue licked the seam of my lips, I opened up for him and our tongues began to mingle. He tasted amazing and I soon realized I had never been this turned on, ever. He reached under my dress and yanked the thin lace panties from me and then wadded them up, shoving them in his pocket. Pushing my dress up higher, I felt his fingers graze up my inner thigh and then I gasped when he shoved two fingers inside of me. He used the pad of his thumb to press and circle on my most sensitive spot. I began to buck my hips as a blindingly fast orgasm ripped through me, and I screamed into his smiling mouth. He then leaned down and bit into my neck, and once he began to suck, I came again, or maybe I was still coming? All I knew was that it was so intense, I almost couldn’t handle it.
Slowly removing his fangs from my neck, he used his naughty fingers to wipe blood from his lip, and then he put both wet fingers into my mouth. “Taste yourself.”
Reaching down, he unbuttoned his pants. “Now I’m going to fuck you until you can’t move, little wolf.”
“Ayla!”
“Aylaaa!”
Voices echoed from the hallway outside the door and I recognized them to be Sanja’s and Beckett’s.
“Shit!” I said, sitting up. “What the hell are we doing?” I muttered the last part mostly to myself.
Kellan looked at me, amused. “We’re having fun, don’t you agree? The door is locked. Lie back and let me pleasure you some more.”
Damn, that sounded awesome, but I realized, for the second time since he’d made me weak and stupid, that I did still have a boyfriend. One I hadn’t spoken to in over a week because I was still mad at him. One I needed to make a serious decision about.
My friends continued to call my name and I ran into the bathroom to clean up. Then, quickly rummaging through the drawers, I found a large, almost empty pill bottle. I dumped the pills onto the counter and ran out and shoved as many of Elda’s ashes into it as I could.
Kellan had re-dressed and now had his hands in his pocket, and I could see he was still very much bulging and straining behind his zipper.
“What in bloody hell are you doing? Don’t touch those! Dr. Stoker needs to bury them.”
I stopped what I was doing. “Uh, I was just cleaning up for you. I feel bad for killing her now.”
No, no I didn’t, but if I didn’t bring Dean her ashes, I had just killed her for nothing.
“No, you don’t,” he said, mimicking my thoughts.
I paused and looked up at him. “Tell you what, let me bury them for you. Just tell me where.”
He shook his head. “You’re a terrible liar. You killed her for money and now have to deliver her ashes.”
I let myself fall onto the floor on my butt and sighed. “Okay you got me.”
“To whom and for how much?”
I shook my head and looked down. “I don’t think so.”
He crouched to my level and used his fingers to tilt my face to his. “No, I’m genuinely curious. Who wanted Elda dead?”
“Does it matter? I killed her, so you’ll have to punish me, I guess.” I was stalling, trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out of there.
He laughed and stood, helping me to stand. “I’m going to give you a sixty-second head start. Take what you have, gather your friends, and get the hell out of here.”
Breathing in relief, I plunked the lid on the pill bottle and said, “And what are you going to do?”
He looked down at the rest of the ashes, then back to me. “Lie my arse off.”
I kissed him on the cheek and, shoving the pill bottle into my bra, I opened the door and saw my friends at the end of the hallway.
“There you are,” Sanja said, looking relieved.
“We need to leave now,” I whisper-yelled.
“But—” Beckett started.
“Now!” I hissed, looking around.
“Where were you—“ Sanja began.
“Later. I’ll tell you both everything later,” I promised.
We descended the stairs and walked as calmly and coolly as we could out the front door. Once we were outside, I glanced behind me, knowing my sixty seconds were over, and as the valet brought us Beckett’s BMW, I heard a man’s voice howling in grief from upstairs.
Chapter 30
I got home and shot off a text to Dean Hobbes: I have something for u.
He replied immediately: Excellent! Where shall we meet?
Me: How about the first place we ever met?
Dean the Vamp: See you in 20m.
“Where are you going?” Sanja asked, alarmed to see me heading for the front door.
I held up the pill bottle. “To deliver and collect.”
I had told both Sanja and Beckett on the way back to my apartment about what had happened upstairs. I may have left out a few sordid details about what Kellan had done with me—to me—but they got the gist. Beckett was upset that I had killed a vampire for money and had dropped us off, angry, tearing off down the street in his car. I would have to deal with him later.
She frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I sighed and walked over to her. “I know you don’t, but I just want this done. I don’t think I’ll be doing this again, so you don’t have to worry.”
Narrowing her eyes at me, she said, “I somehow doubt that.”
“Wanna come?” I asked, plastering on a cheesy grin.
“I don’t think either of us should be out when you just committed murder like an hour ago. You’re going to have the entire Vlasé looking for you.”
I shook my head. “Kellan told me he’d cover for me.”
She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms across her chest. “And you believe that crazy vampire?”
I laughed. “Yes, I do. You coming or not?”
She shook her head. “Like I’d let you go alone. Let me change.” She disappeared into bathroom and came out wearing yoga pants and a hoodie. I was still wearing my dress but had flats on, and I grabbed a sweater on the way out.
* * *
“This is it?” Dean asked, holding the pill bottle in the palm of his hand.
“I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to collect vampire ashes, but it’s not exactly easy on plush, high-dollar carpet. You’re lucky I got that much.”
He shook his head. “I don’t even know if these are hers.”
“Are you for real? Like, how would you know if they were hers if I had given you all of them?” I asked, incredulous.
“Her scent. It’s faintly there, but I don’t know.” He opened the lid and inhaled again.
Sanja made a face. “That’s really gross.”
Dean ignored her and pierced me with his beady brown eyes. Without breaking eye contact, he handed me a wad of bills.
I handed them to Sanja and said, “Count it.”
“Gosh, I feel so Breaking Bad right now,” she said, peeling off the rubber band and licking her finger.
“We done here?” Dean asked as he turned to walk away, his trench coat swishing at his feet.
“She stole your woman away from you, didn’t she?” I asked curiously, wondering if I was right.
He stopped in his tracks and turned around. “How did you know that?”
“She was married to a very prominent member of the Vlasé, you know. A doctor. I’m pretty sure he’s royally pissed at his wife’s death.”
He snorted. “I did not know much about her. Met her at a fetish club, and she took Janine and me home to play. Two weeks later, Janine tells me she’s leaving me for Elda, never saw her again. That was two years ago. Janine and I had been married for thirty years.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling bad for the little weasel now. “I didn’t stay at the party long enough to see if there was a Janine there, but I can try to find her for you.”
He waved a dismissive hand and said, “Nah. I don’t want to see the bitch ever again.”
“So you just wanted Elda dead just because?”
He chuckled and walked down the alley. “Yep. Thank you.”
“It’s all here,” Sanja said. “Nineteen hundred.”
I handed her five one-hundred dollar bills and said, “Thanks for your help.”
She grinned and pocketed the money.
* * *
Ryder had me up against his car at the top of Wolfe Point and was kissing me crazy. “I’m sorry for everything. God, I’ve missed you. We shouldn’t go a month without seeing each other.”
I hugged him tight. “I’ve missed you, too. You still set to graduate in May?”
He nodded. “Yep. Then we can figure out what you’re going to do. Maybe we can move in together.”
I snorted. “We’ve been together five years, We should do something or break up.”
He pulled back and looked down at me, a mix of hurt and shock on his face. “Wow that sounded defensive. We’ve both been too busy to play house. We are still young…”
“Stop,” I said. “I did not mean that to sound the way it did. Sometimes I don’t think before I speak.”
“Sooo, you really do feel that way?”
I sighed. “In a roundabout way, yes, but not as harsh as it came out.”
Feeling increasingly more twitchy and agitated, I walked away and said, “You guys have fun hunting. I’ll be in the trailer trying to avoid mirrors and razors.”
With that, I went inside, stripped off all my clothes, and waited for the fever to hit me. And then spent the rest of the night eating pizza and washing it down with a blood bag, while I watched DVDs on my laptop I’d brought.
The blood bag was a necessity I’d learned to bring with me for each shift. I found it was easy to steal them from blood donation trucks. It sucked to be stuck in the middle like this all the time. I much preferred being the wolf. I felt a comradery with my brothers and sisters when we hunted and shifted together. Now, I was just some freak outcast who could get shot or put on a TV show about Bigfoot if I stayed in the woods. So I just spent the night in the trailer and locked the door for two of the three nights. I’d found by the third night, I did not shift into anything. I’d been taking my own car up the mountain so I didn’t have to waste my time hanging around on the third night.
I always called in sick to my job for the two days I was gone, and sometimes I got lucky and it landed on one or two weekend days so I didn’t have to seem like such a bad employee, but there really wasn’t much choice.
I thought about going into business for myself… as much as I had hated my first vampire kill, I found the next two weren’t so bad. The more I studied them, the more I realized lots of them had been around for decades—even centuries sometimes, and the longer they ‘lived’, the more insane they became. It had been a week since I’d offed Elda. I found myself thinking nonstop about Kellan, but knew that wasn’t such a good idea. Guilt still flooded me when I thought about what we had done that night. What made me feel even guiltier was how much I liked it and wanted to see him again.
I also realized I would have to make a lot more stakes. I didn’t trust that wood wouldn’t splinter or break so I had bought a bunch of metal piping from the hardware store and began sharpening them with my claws. I had also discovered that I could somewhat shift parts of my body on command, like my claws and fangs—like when I had killed that vampire in the alley. The fangs just descended on their own when my body was prepped to kill or defend, I’d learned.
