Wanted

by Kristen Strassel

  “Can we come visit you?” Mom asked. “I’d love to see where you and Nash live.”

  “It’s probably better that we come here.” Only human courtesans were allowed in the building. Her face fell, but she didn’t fight it.

  Addie yawned in my lap, one of those huge ones little kids did when they were fighting the inevitable.

  Mom didn’t miss it. “Time for someone to go to bed.”

  “No!” Addie protested, sitting straight up, blinking rapidly. But she couldn’t hold off the next yawn. I followed her lead, vampires weren’t immune to yawning when someone else did. “I want to see Andrea.”

  “I have an idea.” I tugged on her ponytail. “How about I read you a story?”

  “I’d take her up on it, Addie,” Dad said. “We don’t know the next time she’ll be able to come visit.”

  “Okay.” Addie was reluctant, but she slid off my lap.

  I followed her upstairs, standing in my old bedroom while she brushed what teeth she had left. I’d done the best I could with this place, but it wasn’t me. It never was. I’d found the place I belonged.

  “Ready?” Addie appeared in the doorway.

  “Did you pick a book?” She nodded. “Okay, get into bed and I’ll read it to you.”

  “He’s cute,” Addie said when she settled under her blankets. Tonight her new bunny joined her favorite teddy bear. I tried not to laugh. Nash was a lot of things, but cute wasn’t one of them. To my little sister, cute was the equivalent to sexy as sin.

  “He is.” I looked down at the book. She’d picked one with a princess who moved into her new castle. We both knew the story by heart. I read to her until she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

  “Andrea.” She could barely get the word out, she was so sleepy. “What’s it really like to be a vampire?”

  I put the book down and kissed her forehead. I didn’t want to make it sound too good; Addie still had a chance at a happy, normal life. And now so didn’t I. “It’s knowing that no one can ever hurt you.”

  She nodded, satisfied with that answer, and drifted off to sleep, clutching her new bunny with a smile on her face. This time, it didn’t break my heart to leave her.

  THANK YOU!

  I hope you loved Nash and Corynne’s story! So much more happened in the forest that night. Sacrifice is Olivia and Pierce’s story. Pierce took her life to save her from his enemy. Now he'll show her how sweet revenge can be.

  One-click now!

  Looking for a little sex, blood, and rock n’ roll? Meet my Vegas Vampires!

  Immortal Dilemma is the hottest show in Vegas and Tristan Trevosier is their biggest star. But to me, he's the guy who broke my heart and then showed up on stage claiming to be a vampire.

  Tristan says I won’t understand his new life. He won’t let me in. That’s how I met Blade, a human with a mysterious connection to Immortal Dilemma. Blade is willing to give me everything Tristan won’t.

  But I can’t let him go.

  The true darkness of Tristan's world terrifies me, and I fear for his life. Now Blade’s gone missing and I have to choose—save my mortal friend or abandon my immortal love.

  Start reading Because the Night now!

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  Dying to know what happens with Olivia and Pierce? Keep reading for chapter one of Sacrifice!

  Sacrifice Chapter One

  OLIVIA

  Rule number one of living in a shady New York City apartment? Don’t fucking open the door when a vampire comes knocking.

  Charmaine, my roommate, glared at me. “Your boyfriend’s back. Make sure he pays you this time.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s a disgusting old man who thinks he’s the boss of me.” More incessant banging drowned out my protests. Oscar wasn’t exactly my boss, he was a movie producer. He had a whole lot of things I didn’t, like money and power, and he was becoming a problem. A big fucking problem I hadn’t fixed yet because he promised to solve all my little problems if I kept him around.

  Which made it sound like I had a choice in the matter. Oscar didn’t take no for an answer. So far he hadn’t made good on his promises. Those little problems like not being able to pay the rent were still hanging around, just like Oscar.

  “Olivia!” Oscar snarled from the other side of the door. “I know you’re in there.”

  “Get your money and make him go away,” Charmaine snarled.

  “Like I hadn’t thought of that already,” I sighed, the next bang on the door hardly audible over my heart slamming against my ribcage.

  Oscar was a big shot movie guy, and I was an actress. Match made in heaven, right? Not so fast. The movies he made weren’t the kind I could tell my mom about. Oscar made adult movies. Oh, who am I kidding, they’re straight-up porn. But they were worse than that. He liked to use a power over his actresses known in vampire circles known as glamour.

  Oscar was a vampire. Older than fuck and that was where he drew his power from.

  Glamour was his favorite weapon. He used it to talk me into abandoning every single one of my principles. Nothing was worse than waking up feeling dizzy and used, with only bits and pieces of the night before memorable between bouts of blackness and nausea. He’d whisper some bullshit in my ear about making me a star, and everything else disappeared.

  “Olivia!”

  I stood with my hand on the doorknob, indulging myself in the dream of breaking free from him. Again. He found me the last time I ran, and he’d drag me back again. His pull over me made me stupid. Calling it glamour sounded romantic, like it was something to aspire to. So far, my experience with Oscar was like the rest of my time in New York City. A near miss and a giant fucking disappointment. But I wouldn’t give up. Not yet.

  And that was why I’d open the door.

  “Sweetheart, I was worried about you.” Ugh. I hated it when he called me sweetheart. He took my face in his rough, meaty hands and kissed me on the lips. No way was he coming into the apartment. Charmaine would come at him with her little silver dagger aimed directly at his heart. She’d been dying to use that thing. She didn’t understand how powerful vampires actually were, never having any up close and personal experience with them. She thought she stood a chance. Oscar was stronger and smarter, and...

  Dear God, I could not look him in the eye. No matter how he tried to get me to do it. If I did, everything would turn to fuzz and bad things would happen.

  “What a surprise! I didn’t know you were coming to see me.” I gave one of my best performances yet, the one where I pretended I was happy to see him. I ran my teeth over my bottom lip as I forced myself to smile. Looking anywhere but Oscar, I realized he brought an entourage.

  Oh, shit.

  A bunch of hungry, eager vampires who weren’t interested in looking me in the eye stood behind him.

  “She’s two weeks late on the rent!” Charmaine yelled from her bedroom. “If you don’t pay her the money you owe her, I’m throwing her out on her ass.”

  I turned toward the sound of her voice, my face still in Oscar’s hands, but he wouldn’t let me get away.

  “I have your money. And something better than that,” he said.

  After living with almost no money since I came to New York, it was almost a good enough reason to let him eye-fuck with me. He had me where he wanted me. I stared at his chest. “What’s that?”

  Another kiss, his lips like warm lunch meat against mine. “A starring role in my next film.”

  Of course. Revulsion choked me, but if I had a prayer of seeing any of that money he owed me, I’d better pretend I was grateful.

  “Did I audition?” Acting was easy work—if I could get it. Slipping into someone else’s reality was my idea of paradise. The problems weren’t real, and the solutions actually worked. Happily ever after. Truth of the matter was, I’d d
o anything not to be me for a while, but Oscar’s movies were real. Too real. I never remembered filming them, but it all came rushing back when we had our private viewing parties. He’d sit with me in a dark room, his strong hand on the back of my neck, making sure I never turned away. He’d whisper hot, filthy suggestions for next time—while I promised myself there wouldn’t be a next time. But the worst part was he’d invite others to watch the movies with us. He never let me turn around to see who they were. It was more of a violation not to know who’d watched me do those humiliating things with my costars. To have to wonder if the look in the eyes of his people was pity, solidarity, or something much darker.

  I was never more me than when I had to watch myself doing those things on the screen.

  The men behind Oscar laughed. Fuck. They’d already seen more than their fair share.

  My stomach churned at Oscar’s smirk—his acting could use some work. Kindness didn’t come easily to him. “No, sweetheart. I wrote this role for you. Only you. We’re filming tonight.”

  “Tonight?” No way. Not tonight. Not ever. I only opened the door because if he didn’t give me that money, Charmaine would kick me out. If we filmed tonight, I’d be down for the count. Which meant no money. Again. Either way, I was out on the street. He tightened his grip, giving me nowhere to look but in his eyes.

  I DIDN’T REMEMBER LEAVING the apartment. Time with Oscar was stolen from me.

  I blinked, my eyes sticky.

  I’d argued with Charmaine about money. That was nothing new.

  Oscar showed up. Did he give me the money? Did Charmaine stake him with that little knife? I hoped so. Charmaine fucking hated vampires. I snickered, but it ended in a thick cough. I hated this part of the glamour hangover, as I so lovingly called it.

  Oscar’s thick hands on my face. He promised me money. I couldn’t remember anything else, all I knew was he didn’t give me the money.

  It was always so obvious after it happened. Tomorrow morning, Charmaine would stand in the bathroom doorway, giving me shit about falling for it again as I puked away the after effects of the glamour.

  I was thirsty, so thirsty.

  “Blood,” I rasped when shadows darkened the floor in front of me. I needed blood. Even more than I needed Oscar’s money. “Please.”

  “You don’t deserve blood.” Oscar loomed over me. He filled my vision—the rest of my world was still black. Exactly how he liked it. To be the center of my universe. For me to need all the things he never gave me. The blackness faded away, but not completely. Oscar loved the darkness, only coming to me in the night time.

  My fingers sunk into dirt as I tried to regain control. Something slippery oozed between my fingers. Leaves. We were in the woods, somewhere no one could find me. Another Oscar specialty.

  He never missed a detail.

  My skin stung, which was a mixed blessing. The glamour was wearing off, but that meant shit went down while I was down for the count. Again.

  I raised my filthy hand in front of my face, my stomach clenching at the bite mark on my wrist. That one hurt the worst, the perfect tattoo over the scar tissue thickening my skin. His boys had feasted and left me to burn all over, especially in the places that should’ve been numb by now. They took what they wanted, and I lay on the decaying earth, begging for payment.

  “I deserve it.” Give me the fucking blood. I’ll do anything. Almost.

  A howl cracked the night. Oscar’s head whipped around. I didn’t get many chances to catch this bastard off-guard. My insides roiled as I sat up way too fast and stumbled into a run before I was completely upright. I didn’t know where that noise was coming from, or if it was meant as a warning for us—well, for Oscar. I didn’t consider him and me an us—but one thing was for sure. That howl was a gift.

  I didn’t know where I was running. Just away. Glamour didn’t allow for the luxury of making plans.

  “Olivia!” he roared. “Follow her.”

  Of course he’d make his boys do his dirty work. Oscar was way too much of an egotistical prick to chase me himself.

  On my best day, I couldn’t outrun a vampire. They did everything better than us. Faster, smarter, stronger. I still had to think of it that way—better. Once I believed vampires were magical and could save us from the bad guys. Like everything else, I’d been wrong about that, too. Vampires were the bad guys.

  No matter how wrong I’d been about the vampires, I couldn’t let my desire for my own personal happily ever after die. It would be a domino effect, if I gave up on beating Oscar, the rest of my dreams would disappear, too. I’d be left with nothing but this reality.

  I wanted so much more than this.

  Dead leaves crunched under my feet as I stumbled through the deep piles of decay. I couldn’t look back. I was drained and stupid and I had to put all my effort on what lie ahead of me, not what I left behind.

  Only my footfall echoed in my ears. No one had followed me. The vampire mob already taken what they wanted and got what they needed.

  It was all for nothing. They let me go.

  No way, it can’t be this easy, I thought, but the words looped together in my brain. Tangled. Maybe they’re...done...with...

  I tumbled to the ground, my consciousness the only strength I had. If I make myself small, they won’t see me. They’ll forget about me and find another desperate actress dumb enough to fall for their promises.

  The blackness came back—a thick blanket that strangled my senses. I couldn’t welcome it, but staying present was a losing battle. Each blink got longer. Nothing made sense.

  This was how Oscar would get me back. He’d pick me out of the dirt like dropped change.

  My heart stuttered in my chest when someone put a hand in my hair. One of Oscar’s vamps snuck up on me. No, this was too gentle to be one of them. This touch felt good. Glamour could still be playing tricks on me. A wet leaf clung to my cheek as I was lifted from the ground.

  “I don’t want the money.” My words flowed together. I used all my energy to kick my captor. “Leave me alone.”

  Death didn’t scare me anymore. It couldn’t be worse than living.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” a man said. He wasn’t one of Oscar’s guys. The man who held me in his looked like a fallen angel. He had dark skin, long braided hair, and a hint of an accent. His words sounded like a song.

  I’d definitely slipped into another dimension. How long would the glamour last?

  I knew this man, but I couldn’t remember how. Maybe I just wished I did.

  Barking dogs drowned out my thoughts. I was losing it. I didn’t have the strength for a performance. Before I died, I wanted to tell him I loved the way he talked. That was all. But my stomach roiled and I jerked away from him. I couldn’t get sick on my angel.

  His firm, steady hands stayed on my back. He was superhuman for being able to stay with me like this. Tears ran down my cheeks, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, ignoring the burning...everywhere.

  “I want to go home.” Blackness closed in on me.

  The angel shook his head. He took me into his arms again, holding me against his body. I felt safe there, if only for a moment. “You won’t make it home. You’ve lost a lot of blood...”

  His words faded away. His mouth was still moving, but I didn’t hear him. The angel had come to tell me I was going to die, filthy and ripped to pieces in these woods.

  “No!” I screamed as loud as I could, but he kept talking, like he didn’t hear me. I didn’t exist anymore. I’d turn to dust in his arms and become one with the forest. I’d die here and he’d be the only witness.

  This man, this angel, had come to me for a reason. It was my only comfort as the darkness swallowed me.

  Keep Reading Sacrifice Now!

  Acknowledgements

  When Michelle Fox asked me to be a part of this project, I jumped at the chance. Even if it meant starting the book on a plane, and bringing my computer to the day job to get it fini
shed on time. Thanks to her and the rest of the courtesan crew—Gwen, Kim, Rebecca, Ever, Selena, and Rochelle for working so hard to make this project a success. When I told my editor, Julie, about the concept she got so excited. She’s always on the ones and twos keeping my characters in line. Karen and Angela cheered me on from the sidelines as I wrote. And most of all—thanks to all of you!