Hex Appeal

by Linda Wisdom

  “Good evening, Jazz,” she spoke with an accent that wasn’t easy to identify. Understandable since the woman had lived in many countries over her five hundred years of existence.

  “Leticia.” Jazz’s tone was noticeably cooler. Her gaze hopped over to Nick and what she saw there didn’t make her any happier. She prided herself that she didn’t need a scorecard to know that Leticia was Krebs’s date and that Nick appeared to already know this. Krebs stood on the other side of the woman watching Jazz with the wariness of a mouse watching a cat. “I didn’t realize you and Krebs were seeing each other outside of business,” she said carefully.

  Leticia looked up at Krebs with a warmth that transformed her face from porcelain beauty to something almost human. She stood with her head reaching his shoulder.

  “We started to get to know each other through e-mails and phone calls when he first worked on my site,” she explained. “We thought it would be nice for the four of us to go out. It’s good to see you again, Jazz.”

  “And you, although, it’s been some time.” She decided not to mention that World War I was going on at the time. A part of her wanted to rant and rave that this was wrong, very wrong. But another part looked at Krebs’s face and saw something she had never seen before.

  Her very mortal roommate was in love. Honest to Fates love. The only trouble was, he was in love with a vampire.

  “So? What are the plans for tonight?” she asked in a voice that came out higher pitched than expected while she pasted a smile on her lips. She deserved an Academy Award for this performance.

  There was no missing Krebs’s sigh of relief or the warm approval in Nick’s eyes.

  She kept her smile in place even if it felt a bit forced.

  “We have time before the limo shows up. Would anyone like some wine?” Krebs played the perfect host.

  “You knew about this?” Jazz hissed, as she and Nick moved toward the family room.

  She can hear you.

  Jazz mentally slapped herself upside the head. He told you that day you were over here for a football game, didn’t he?

  He did.

  And you didn’t tell him what a really bad idea this is?

  You know him better than I do. Do you think he’d listen?

  No, but that shouldn’t have stopped you. Leticia’s on an eternal liquid diet. Krebs loves his steak rare. They both might be night people, but it’s for different reasons.

  It’s only an evening out, love. Even with us present as buffers they might discover they’re not meant for each other.

  Jazz studied the sparks that had nothing to do with magick between the couple.

  Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

  As the evening passed she realized the two were perfect for each other. Leticia shared Krebs’s taste in music, or at least pretended to, and her roomie had never looked happier. Considering the number of women Jazz had seen him with over the few years they’d known each other, she liked seeing this side of him as the enraptured male as the foursome spent the evening at an upscale club. She even gracefully handled Nick’s knowing looks.

  It wasn’t until she and Leticia retired to freshen their lipstick that Jazz felt comfortable enough to say what had been in her mind all evening.

  “Krebs is very special to me,” she said, as she sat down in front of the vanity mirror.

  “And to me,” Leticia said.

  “Then you will understand if I say that if you ever hurt him or try to use him for a midnight snack I will do everything in my power to make you suffer.” Jazz’s tone was bright as she dusted her cheeks with a golden blush.

  Leticia’s eyes met hers in the reflective glass. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Jazz’s internal detector told her the vampire was speaking the truth. “You really do care for him.”

  “Very much. Jonathan is the first man to treat me like a real woman for hundreds of years. He doesn’t care what I am or what I’ve done in the past. Do you realize how freeing that is to someone like me? It’s as if I’ve been given a whole new life.”

  Jazz didn’t have to think about her answer even as she reminded herself that Leticia seemed to prefer Krebs’s real name instead of the nickname Jazz dubbed him with. “Yes, I can,” she murmured. “I’m sure you’ll understand that I’ll always worry about your association, but I’m glad that you and Krebs found each other. He’s a great guy and deserves someone special.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled. “I love your shoes. Milan?”

  “A friend gave them to me.” She looked down to see Croc sneezing as she nosed the plush carpet. Delilah somehow managed to add another layer of mascara to her inch-long eyelashes, although Jazz had no idea where the stiletto hid her makeup. “They’re not my usual style, but they are fun to wear.”

  “I used to have an ermine makeup case until she ate all my lipsticks and regurgitated them during a date.”

  Jazz burst out laughing. “And I thought it was bad when Fluff and Puff drank three bottles of my body wash and burped bubbles for a week.”

  “I guess I was lucky with the lipsticks.”

  Leticia returned her lipstick to her small evening bag and turned on the bench to face Jazz. “I hope you don’t mind that Jonathan told me that you have been suffering from odd dreams.”

  “In a way, yes, I mind, but since my nightmares woke him up a time or eight, I can understand. Plus, it seems others have been finding out somehow.” She thought of Mindy’s advice and even Rex speaking up.

  “And you feel they’re magickally induced?”

  Jazz nodded. “But that’s the best I’ve been able to come up with so far.”

  “Sometimes old grudges rise up to the present.” She appeared to pick and choose her words.

  Jazz frowned. “Look to the past.”

  “That’s a good way to look at it. Parts of our world are in turmoil now what with Flavius gone and Angelica taking over as director of the Protectorate,” Leticia went on.

  Jazz was positive her blood had turned to ice. “Angelica?” The name felt thick and sluggish on her tongue. “I thought she was still somewhere in Europe.” Even another galaxy was too close if Jazz had anything to do about it.

  “Why, yes, didn’t you know? I would have assumed that Nick told you. Vincent, the previous director, had been in charge for the last 400 years. Many felt it was time for him to step down. That his ideas were too antiquated for many of the members. When Angelica challenged him for his seat and had enough backing from others, he had no choice but to retire. With Flavius gone,” she hesitated, “well, there was no one left who was truly strong enough to fight her.”

  “It sounds as if you don’t like her any more than I do,” Jazz commented.

  Leticia stood up and smoothed down her jacket with her hands. “Let’s just say if she was on fire, I’d break out the marshmallows.”

  Jazz grinned. “Leticia, I can see we’ll be the very best of friends.”

  She was pleased to see Krebs’s look of delight when the two laughing women returned to the table and Nick’s wary puzzlement when she shot him a look fit to kill.

  “If you’ll tell me what I did wrong I’ll apologize,” he murmured in her ear as he held her chair out for her.

  “Something tells me you’ll be groveling a long time for not telling me that Angelica found a way to gain more power,” she murmured back. “And now I know why you were so furious after Reinhold spoke to you. He told you about Angelica, didn’t he?”

  Nick glanced at Leticia and Krebs whose heads were together as they shared their own private conversation.

  “We’ll discuss this later.”

  “Yes, we will.” She reached for her glass of wine then drew back when she realized her hand was trembling.

  Angelica, an ancient powerful vampire, might have a name that made one think of an angel, but she was as far from the celestial being as she could get. Jazz considered the female vampire a bloodthirsty boogeyman.

 
Angelica was well known for her beauty, great intelligence, and an insane thirst for blood that outshone even the infamous Elizabeth Bathory—the notorious serial killer of the late 1500s who enjoyed bathing in her victims’ blood. While Elizabeth Bathory was punished for her crimes, Angelica always escaped scot-free.

  Jazz was aware that Angelica had also been involved with Nick at one time. Even though it had been before he and Jazz met, it still galled Jazz that he had once, and probably way more, bumped uglies with the evil-spirited vampire whose soul was as black as her non-beating heart.

  Krebs shot Jazz a wary look then raised his eyebrows, looking upward. Nick’s muffled laughter had her sending her senses outward and realizing there was a rumble of thunder overhead.

  Damn it! Mother Nature will have me scrubbing out all her rainbow pots for the next five hundred years!

  It was enough to stop her trembling and allow her to pick up her wine glass without the contents sloshing all over her hand. The thunder was silenced as abruptly as it sounded.

  Since Nick had walked over to the house, Krebs offered to drop him off at the boardwalk and Jazz decided to go with Nick.

  “I had a lovely evening, Jazz,” Leticia told her as Nick helped Jazz out of the back of the limo.

  “I did too,” she said sincerely, realizing this was one female vampire she not only liked, but she could see as a friend.

  Thank you, Krebs mouthed in her direction.

  “Why do I feel as if you’re not along for my esteemed company?” Nick asked as they reached the boardwalk

  In deference to the chilly sea air, Jazz wrapped her shawl tighter around her shoulders. Her heels clicked an angry staccato on the weathered boards.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that Angelica had left her den of malevolence and returned to this side of the world?” she asked in a voice that was too sweet and conversational to be sincere to cynical vampire ears. It also had an edge to it that was painful to a vampire’s ultra-sensitive ears.

  “Maybe because I knew you’d have the exact reaction you’re having now.” He easily kept up with her swift pace. Her smile didn’t fool Nick one bit. He was positive his sexy witch was spitting mad and it didn’t have a thing to do with Krebs dating Leticia. While there wasn’t a hint of thunder and lightning overhead, thank the Fates, there was that nasty black and purple cloud swirling around her that indicated a whopping temper tantrum if he didn’t handle this right. He kept one eye on her hands. If she pulled up a fireball he wanted to be out of range before he went up like a Roman candle.

  A push of power had the heavy glass doors blowing open with ease as she entered the building and the elevator door opened without anyone pushing a button. Nick decided it was safer to just follow her. Besides, the view was damn good. The witch had a very sweet butt, not to mention the way the flirty hem swished around her thighs even if that purple and black temper haze obscured some of the view.

  He barely made it inside the elevator car before the grille snapped shut and the elevator moved downward with an off-balance jolt—all without a finger touching one button.

  Even the heavy steel door leading to his lair opened with ease as Jazz marched past it with Nick close on her heels. Even then he was almost smacked in the face with the door as it started to swing shut. He hissed a curse and shielded his eyes with his hand as she waved her hands and lights flared with noonday-bright glare.

  “There’s a reason why I have a dimmer switch,” he growled, dialing back the lights to a more reasonable illumination.

  “But the truth looks so much better in the light of day, don’t you think?” She made her way to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. She grimaced at the bags of blood that almost filled the interior and reached beyond the bags to pull a bottle of wine out. She found a wineglass in a nearby cabinet. After filling the glass, she took a seat on the couch.

  “I don’t lie to you.” He sprawled in a nearby chair.

  “But you do choose not to reveal all the facts, which the way I see it is another form of lying.” She sipped her wine.

  “Maybe because I didn’t think this was the kind of news to just dump on you.”

  “What? Were you going to ease into it? It’s been a couple of weeks since Reinhold told you. You’ve had plenty of time to find a way to tell me.” Her fingers tightened around the stem of the glass. She had no idea her lipstick stood out in stark contrast against her pale features or that her eyes deepened to a darker moss green than usual. “Honestly, Nick, you knew I’d find out sooner or later. There are no secrets among any of our kind. And this piece of news is a big one. Maybe I’m a lowly witch,” she spat out aware of the majority of the vampires’ opinion of her kind, “but I do know that a woman hasn’t ever been named director of the Protectorate because it’s been your typical old boys network for how many thousands of years? So for Angelica to climb to the top of the bloody heap means she held some pretty strong cards that ensured the post was hers. I’m not stupid, Nick. Angelica has never done anything for the greater good of the vampire race. All she’s ever cared about is herself, and she doesn’t care who she destroys along the way. Clive Reeves was a rank amateur in the psychopath community compared to her. And if Flavius had still been here, she would have found a way to destroy him too. How many humans has she killed over her years as a vampire? How many vampires has she managed to destroy in her quest for power? And what the fuck did she do to you all those years ago to linger in your spirit as if she still has some kind of hold on you?”

  Nick’s head snapped to the side as if she’d physically slapped him.

  “Yes, Angelica is now the director of the Protectorate and even sits on the Ruling Council. Yes, Angelica is most definitely someone to avoid at all costs. And yes, Angelica and I shared a past I’d rather not revisit. And you knew that long before I even knew you. Subject closed.” The red in his eyes echoed his words.

  She took a large swallow of her wine. “Oh ho, so that’s it. You did the unthinkable, didn’t you? You left her. Her kind would prefer to do the leaving or tossing out in pieces because I just bet that’s her habit.” She kicked off her shoes and sat back, tucking her legs under her.

  Nick’s eyes were riveted on the way her short skirt slid up her thighs. He wasn’t sure if she deliberately flashed him a hint of her thong panties or if it was accidental. Either way, he wasn’t complaining.

  “If we are careful we can live a long time,” he said slowly. “And no matter what some may think, our kind is a small number compared to the rest of humanity. It’s natural for us to run into each other throughout the years. And not all of them are pleasant encounters.”

  “But you still deal with the Protectorate,” she pointed out. “And don’t tell me you don’t.”

  “I told you I don’t work for them.”

  Jazz nodded. “Yes, you did tell me that and we both know you lied to me because when we were at that house the first ones you called were the Protectorate enforcers.”

  “Because they’re the ones who deal with a clean-up of that nature!” he snapped. “Damn it, Jazz, why do I feel as if I’m on trial here? Because I didn’t tell you about Angelica being named director? The last hour is proof why I didn’t say anything. I knew you’d have a fit about it and so you are.”

  “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that even though I never met her years ago she tried to have me killed! To this day, I don’t even know why.” She abruptly snapped her mouth shut. She dropped back against the couch with her head resting against the cushions as she rubbed her temples. “And this is exactly why I despise her. She doesn’t even have to be in the room for us to fight.” Something niggled the back of her brain that she couldn’t put her finger on. The harder she tried to focus on it the more it eluded her. She finally gave up before she ended up with a mammoth headache. “Something’s very wrong about her.”

  “That’s nothing new.” He relaxed in the chair now that he felt assured he wouldn’t end up a victim of spontaneous combustion
. “Besides, why ruin the rest of the evening with talk of my past when we can focus on the present?”

  “You have a one-track mind, vampire.”

  “Only when it comes to a certain witch.” He could easily match her snarl for snarl.

  Jazz’s eyes still glittered with torrid green lights as she slowly rose to her feet. The stilettos squeaked a protest when she bent over and picked them up, settling them in a corner of the couch with a pillow over them. She straightened up and walked the short distance to the chair. She straddled his lap and slowly sat down.

  “Is there something you don’t want your shoes to see?” Nick asked.

  “More like I’m not one to want an audience.” She fingered the buttons lining his shirtfront.

  “This is a new shirt,” he murmured, watching the flash of her red polished nails sliding between two of the buttons.

  One rip had the buttons flying everywhere. “Buy another one.” She rubbed against his thigh with sensuous feline grace as she effectively shredded his shirt then went to work on his slacks. She raised up long enough to push his slacks and boxers down to his ankles. She deliberately ignored his cock rising up to bob a happy hello at her.

  “If you’d let me up, I could kick them off,” Nick murmured, slightly raising one foot.

  “Now, why would I do that when I have you in my power?” She leaned forward to nuzzle his ear then nibbled on the lobe. “And I do,” she whispered with a dart of her tongue. She smiled as he shuddered. The subtle abrasion of her silk thong rubbing against Nick’s thigh soon had her labia pink, plump, and damp with arousal.

  Nick’s nostrils flared at the musky scent of her while a pinpoint of red appeared in his dark eyes. “Power can shift before one is aware of what’s going on.” He lifted his thigh enough to increase the pressure against her. He slipped his hand under her dress, unerringly finding the tiny mole that dotted the area just above her pubic hair.

  Jazz gasped softly at the lightning flashing through her body, but she wasn’t about to allow Nick to have any say in this sexual adventure.

  She leaned forward until her lips brushed his ear. “You have something to fill. But you must remain still. And if you’re a very good boy, you will get quite a thrill.” She smiled as she stopped before completing her spell.