by Devin Hanson
I went to the kitchen and found water in the fridge, the kind that they sell at Whole Foods for five dollars a bottle. I came back with the water and sat on the couch at David’s feet. “Other than her platinum-blonde hair and good looks, you mean,” I commented.
“Thank you.” He raised his bottle in a mock salute and drank deeply. “She does have an attractive physical appearance,” he admitted, and smiled slyly at me.
I refused to ask the obvious question. I had no claim to David, and I’d be damned if I’d let him goad me into playing the jealous lover. “I’m glad you’re recovering,” I said, changing the subject. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? I’d want to make sure whatever they were pumping into me wasn’t dangerous, if I was in your shoes.”
David rolled a shoulder, dismissing my worries. “It was only blood.”
I gaped at him. “Blood?!” My stomach turned over.
“You needn’t worry. It was only a temporary measure to hold me under their control.”
“But…”
Before I could gather thoughts and express my disgust, Ethan called me. “Ethan,” I greeted him, “that was fast.”
Ethan’s voice was irritable. “Yeah. I told them I was looking for a white-haired Jane Doe and they were more than happy to point me in her direction. She’s out of surgery and in recovery.”
“That’s good!”
“I’m on my way to check in on her. The nurse said she was sedated and unlikely to be conscious.”
I widened my eyes at David and mouthed, she’s unconscious, before saying aloud, “Okay. Thanks, Ethan.”
“I’ll be there in a second. Hold on.”
David sat up a little straighter. “He’s going to check on her?”
I nodded and listened to Ethan’s breathing, feeling tension ratchet upward in my chest.
“Okay, I’m outside her room.” Distantly, I heard his side of a conversation, the other side muted beyond my hearing, “Yeah, the Jane Doe. Ethan Bishop, I’m a licensed PI. No worries, I’m just checking on her, making sure she’s doing okay. No, I told the nurse I’d only be a minute.”
There was a clunk as he pushed open the door with his phone hand.
“Alex, you there?”
“Still here.”
“Okay, I just want to… uh-oh.”
“What?”
“She’s gone, Alex!”
Chapter Twelve
“Gone?” I asked. I dropped my phone from my ear and put him on speaker.
“Yeah,” Ethan said. “The bed is empty.”
“Check around,” David requested. “Are there other beds?”
“What do you think I’m doing? There’s nobody else here, I—what the hell?”
“Talk to me,” David said.
“There’s a fox under the bed!”
David sighed and shook his head. “It’s okay, Mr. Bishop.”
“Okay? Why is there a fox here, David?”
“Listen to me very carefully.” David leaned forward, his face intent. “You have questions. I understand that. Once you return to the hotel, I will answer every question you have. But right now, it’s imperative you do precisely as I say.”
“Okay, David. I’m listening.” I could hear the strain in Ethan’s voice.
“I would like you to pick the fox up and wrap it in a blanket. Bring it here, to me. Do not let anyone else see it. Can you do that?”
“You expected a fox?” A raw burst of laughter came through the phone and I winced. I could see him, his shoulders hunched over, pinching the bridge of his nose, taking deep breaths and waiting for life to start making sense again.
“When you arrive here I will answer your questions, Mr. Bishop. You have my solemn word. Every question you ask, I will answer truthfully without attempt at deception.”
I raised my head to look at David in surprise. It was an oath I hadn’t expected to hear from him. I felt the truth in his voice.
“David?” I asked softly. I reached out and muted the phone. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me, Alexandra.” David met my gaze levelly, with no sign of amusement or deception on his face.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Ethan said unevenly. “This thing won’t bite, will it?”
I unmuted the phone. “The fox is perfectly safe, Ethan. Just be gentle.”
“Right. I’ll call you back when I’m at the hotel.” The call cut out.
“She is safe, isn’t she?” I asked.
David frowned. “She’s wounded. Disoriented. Alone. Her instinct may be to lash out.”
“Hopefully she stays asleep.” I shook my head. “What are you thinking, David? Ethan is not ready to hear the truth.”
“I would like to borrow your phone for a call.”
I sighed and tossed it over to him. “For the record, I think you’re making a mistake.”
“So little faith, Alexandra.” He dialed a number from memory and held the phone to his ear. “Good afternoon, Anisa, my dear. I’m in need of your services. Yes, I understand it is short notice. I will double your usual fee. Excellent. Yes, the usual place. The target will be entering the lobby carrying a blanket-wrapped bundle. The desk knows to send you up.” David hung up and tossed the phone back to me.
“Do I even want to know?” I asked.
“I agreed to answer any questions Mr. Bishop asks. I did not promise him the opportunity to ask any.”
It was the kind of loophole I associated with asshole lawyers and slimy bureaucrats. I stood up and went to go stand by the windows looking out over the city. On the one hand, I knew letting Ethan get involved in my world would only end badly for him. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but feel betrayed on Ethan’s behalf.
“So, what are you going to do to him?” I asked woodenly.
“Mr. Bishop is a valuable associate,” David said. I heard him get up from the couch. “I would keep him so.”
I didn’t answer him. The opulence of the suite suddenly seemed fake, a glamorous façade hiding the lies of the powerful that spent their time here.
David came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. He leaned forward and I felt his hot breath on my ear. I turned my head away. I didn’t want his contact right then. It felt dirty.
“You are upset,” he said softly, surprised. “Would you prefer the alternative? That I allow Mr. Bishop up here, and he learns the truth of what you are, of what I am, of what Ilyena is?”
I swallowed and leaned my head forward against the glass. It felt cold against my forehead. Still, I didn’t say anything. What was there to say?
“It is poor payment for his service to me,” David sighed and let his hands drop from my shoulders. “I don’t deny that. But it would be even more of a disservice to allow him to continue on his chosen course. Not only would it put his life in danger, it could expose us as well.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I said bitterly. “I’ve avoided getting involved with Ethan because of exactly this situation.”
“The obvious question, Alexandra, is why you chose to involve Mr. Bishop now?”
“He was the only one I could trust,” I whispered. “My options were limited.”
“Such is the circumstance we find ourselves in now. If it’s any consolation, Ms. Sahar is one of the best. Mr. Bishop will have little cause for complaint on the morrow.”
“What will be done to him?”
“Do you truly wish to know?”
I wrapped my arms around my chest. “No. He won’t be harmed though?”
“Alexandra.” The change in David’s voice made me turn to look at him. “This is the price we pay. For our own safety, and the safety of the ones we care for.”
I felt the cold track of a tear run down my cheek. I hadn’t even realized I was crying. I dashed a hand across my eyes. “So that’s it, then? We cut ourselves off from the rest of the world?”
“It is how it has always been done.” David took half a step toward me, then there was a
mechanical whir from the elevator and the doors dinged open.
A woman stepped out of the elevator, a bundle in her arms that looked like a hospital blanket. She had thick, black hair, olive skin and an impressive bust.
David turned around with a smile. “Anisa, my dear. You’re looking as lovely as ever.”
“Oh, you always were a charmer, Caradoc. Save your effort for someone worthy.” Anisa smiled broadly. She had a motherly demeanor about her, and her smile brought out the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She had an eastern accent, Arabic, perhaps. Despite myself, I liked her immediately.
David stepped up to her and accepted the bundle from her carefully. A corner of the blanket fell away and I caught a glimpse of a bushy white tail before Anisa tucked the blanket back.
“You seem busy, and I have business I must return to. Do look me up before you leave town again, David.” She winked at me and smiled again.
“I am in your debt, madam,” David said seriously.
With a last wave, Anisa returned to the elevator and was gone. David carried the bundle over to the couch and set it down gently. My upset over Ethan was pushed aside by my curiosity and I peered over David’s shoulder as he peeled back the blanket.
Ilyena was a beautiful fox, white as snow but for slightly darker markings at the base of her tail. Through the half-open eyelid, I saw her eyes were a brilliant, vibrant blue. On her ribcage, half-hidden by her foreleg, I could see the puckered lips of the wound where she had been stabbed. Any bandages would have fallen off when she had changed, but the sutures had stayed in place.
David smoothed the ruffled fur on the back of her head and she whimpered slightly. One of her back paws twitched. “She’s under sedation,” David mused. “A larger dose than her current form needs. She won’t wake for hours yet.”
He stood and stretched his back. “I don’t know about you, Alexandra, but I am exhausted. Today has been harder than I had expected.”
I snorted a surprised laugh. “Yeah, I bet. How are you feeling? I don’t… understand why they were putting blood into you.”
“It was not diseased, if that was your fear. Such methods would have little effect on me.”
“You’re recovering quickly,” I observed.
“Somewhat. It will still be hours before I am back to my usual condition.” He shrugged. “I wish to take a shower and perhaps have some respite for an hour or two. Will you watch over Ilyena?”
I nodded mutely and watched David retreat into his room. I heard the shower start up and vividly remembered the last time I had showered with David. I shivered at the sudden tingle between my legs and the dampness that followed.
“Bad Alex,” I muttered.
I took a seat on a couch across from Ilyena and tried to ignore the muted splashing of water coming from the shower. The hinn was dreaming, and her whiskers twitched. I wasn’t particularly familiar with foxes, but there were anomalies about her that struck me as being not-quite-normal. Her tail was particularly long and fluffy, her eyes oversized, her muzzle slender. But maybe I was just expecting to see oddities where there were none.
I had to keep reminding myself that Ilyena was a hinn and would shift back into her human form when she regained consciousness. Curled up as she was on the couch, she looked like an expensive, exotic pet. Ruefully aware that the hinn would rightly take offense at the comparison, I lay down on the couch with a throw cushion for a pillow.
David wasn’t the only one who was tired. I might not have been drugged, but I had spent the last several hours terrified, anxious, or some mixture of the two. David might be off having some respite, but I needed a nap just as badly.
My eyes sagged shut with images of David in the shower dancing through my head.
I woke suddenly. The filaments of my dream vanished when I opened my eyes, leaving me wide awake… and ravenously horny. I put a hand between my legs and groaned as the contact sent sparks surging through me. My dream had pushed me to the brink of orgasm, and as I pressed my fingers harder, I knew it would take only the smallest effort to masturbate to completion.
Instead, I rolled to my feet. A glance toward Ilyena showed the fox was still sleeping and hadn’t moved since I had laid down for my nap. The sun had set, leaving only a rosy glow on the western horizon.
Why should I masturbate when there was a perfectly serviceable male in the next room? One who I knew would not refuse me if I went to him.
I stepped softly across the suite and pressed my ear to the door. I couldn’t hear anything but the pounding of my own pulse, so I eased the door open quietly. David was sleeping in the bed, his clothes neatly hung on a chair. He had pushed the covers down and slept beneath only the sheet.
My eyes wandered across his form, lingering on his exposed chest before sliding downward. I stripped out of my jeans and jacket, down to my bare skin. After a moment’s deliberation, I left my thong on. I left my clothes in a pile by the door and tip-toed across the room to the bed.
Moving slowly so I didn’t wake him, I slipped under the sheet and crawled through the cool linen to David’s side. He was lying on his back with the sheet tucked under one arm. I hadn’t touched him yet, but I could feel the heat radiating from his body like a furnace. Under the sheet he was naked, and the sight stirred my simmering arousal.
Carefully, I lifted my leg and swung it over him until I was straddling his waist. His skin was hot to the touch and I leaned forward, pressing my body against his. He shifted his legs in his sleep but didn’t wake. I arched my back, dragging the tips of my breasts down his chest, then found his nipple with my mouth.
I felt him startle awake and his sudden intake of breath made his chest rise beneath me. “Alexandra?” he whispered, his voice rough.
“Shh,” I shifted to his other nipple, dragging my tongue across his chest. He smelled faintly of soap and campfires. I found his nipple and flicked it with my tongue.
David groaned and raised his hands to my waist.
“Uh-uh,” I chastised him and caught his wrists. I pressed his hands to the bed next to his head and kissed him. “No touching.”
I ran my nails lightly over the skin of his chest and felt the tiny ridges of the scars there. In the half-light coming from the open door, I could make out the scars on his skin. Starting high on the side of his ribs, a faint, repeating pattern of half-circles ran down to his hip, like burn marks from red-hot chainmail. There were dozens of scars on him: puckered circles of bullet wounds, fainter, broader slashes, and a plethora of smaller slices.
“You are not good at taking care of yourself,” I whispered, tracing one of the larger scars with my fingertip. He growled and I felt the muscles in his stomach tighten beneath me, but he relaxed when I cleared my throat and dug my nails into his chest.
I grinned and shifted further down his body, trapping his legs beneath my hips. I laid a trail of kisses down his chest, taking my time and examining every inch of him as I went. I could sense his impatience. I knew what he wanted, but he would just have to wait. This time, I was the one in control, and he would have to go at my pace.
I had pushed the sheet down with me, and now I threw it off completely. Here was what I wanted. I ran a nail down his member and my grin broadened as I saw him shiver and goose bumps rise on his legs. I lifted him and breathed in his campfire scent. He shifted his hips and I paused, teasing him for his impatience until he groaned and let his hips fall back against the mattress.
Starting at the base of his member I slowly licked my way up to the head of his shaft and closed my mouth around it. David moaned and the muscles in his stomach and chest rippled as he fought the urge to move. Slowly I took him deeper into my mouth, moving back and forth as I felt him swell and stiffen until I had to back out.
I coughed and took a few deep breaths before taking him back into my mouth. I closed my hand around the base of his shaft, but still couldn’t get the rest of it into my mouth. I had forgotten how large he was. With my free hand I reached down between my legs an
d felt the damp crouch of my thong. I rubbed myself lightly, feeling the wetness between my lips. I was ready for him.
David was hard, and just as ready as I was. Abruptly, I couldn’t wait any longer. I moved up to straddle him and held him in position. I moved my thong aside and lowered myself slowly onto him. The heat of his member felt like it would burn me and a long moan dragged from my lips.
I felt David’s stomach flex under my hands and I dug my nails into his skin. “No, you stay still. This time it’s my turn.”
Now that I had him in me, I felt a devilish glee in teasing him more. I pulled up until just the head was inside me, then bobbed up and down slowly on him. I could feel the tightness in his muscles as he fought the urge to slam into me. The tight cluster of nerve endings at my opening were sending shudders through me, and I finally sank down onto him, unable to hold myself up any longer.
I rode him faster, then, one hand braced against his chest, the other cupping my breast and tweaking my nipple. David’s hands came up and gripped my thighs. I was too far gone to try and stop him. Sensing that my game was over, David pulled me down for a hungry kiss and flexed his hips, driving himself even deeper inside me.
The building pleasure washed over me, and with it, I felt a surge of the same energy I had felt yesterday. The pleasure and the glow of energy seemed linked together. David’s thrusts into me drove me higher toward my rapidly approaching orgasm, and the energy came rushing in with it.
“Oh my god, David,” I cried, then my orgasm broke. I shook in his arms, the rolling waves of pleasure reverberating with the flood of energy, growing higher, stronger, unbearable.
I screamed.
And everything went white.
David’s bed was empty and cold when consciousness finally returned. The door to the rest of the suite was closed, the only light coming from the bedside lamp. I stretched languidly. I felt alive. More than that. I felt bursting with energy, so full of buzzing life that I half-expected my skin to glow with it.
The door opened and David stepped into the room. He saw that I was awake and closed the door softly behind him. He stayed where he was, frowning thoughtfully at me.
