He’d gone down on one knee and slipped off her shoes, gentle hands cool against her ankles. He’d kissed his way up her leg until he reached the hem of her short skirt. He’d paused and looked up at her then, eyes completely black and pheromones rolling off him in undulating waves.
Back then she hadn’t minded the pheromones. They’d increased her arousal, as they were meant to, but more important they had been evidence of his arousal.
Nix turned onto her back. Closing her eyes, she lost herself in the memory of that night. Tobias slid the zipper of her skirt down, each click of the tab against the metal teeth sounding loud in the silence of the room. The only other sound was her ever quickening breathing and his low murmurs of encouragement. Her frilly red blouse was next to go, leaving her standing next to the bed clad in only a skimpy pair of black silk panties.
Tobias rested his cheek against the slight mound of her belly, his dark hair tickling her skin. She combed her fingers through his hair and then gripped his shoulders. “Come up here,” she whispered, tugging at him.
“Not yet.” His deep voice rasped across her eardrums, ramping her arousal even higher. “Got some territory to explore right here.” Warm breath puffed against the juncture of her thighs. His lips pressed a slow, open-mouthed kiss high up on her inner thigh. She caught her breath. When his tongue dipped under the elastic leg of her panties and traced against the fleshy lips of her sex, she moaned and leaned into his touch.
He abruptly stood, mouth crushing hers, tongue thrusting inside in primal possession. She moaned and met him, her tongue parrying his every move while her fingers dug into his shoulders, his back, slid down to grab his lovely, firm ass and pull him against her.
He groaned and rocked against her, his erection hard against the fly of his pants. With a soft oath he tore away and stripped off his clothes, his lean, muscular body bared to her ravenous stare. In the soft moonlight streaming through the window, his fangs glinted, his eyes black holes surrounded by crimson. Muscles bunched and rippled from his neck to his shoulders, to his abdomen where a treasure trail of dark hair drew her gaze lower. His cock was so rigid it curved up against his belly. The veins pulsed, powered by a heart that beat only after he had fed.
She swallowed as she remembered when he’d fed last. At the club, their bodies entwined on the dance floor. He’d kissed her neck and then fangs had slid into her throat so gently she almost hadn’t felt it.
Almost. But the sensual onslaught that came with his bite had been impossible to ignore. Her body had ignited, her core softening and becoming slick with arousal, preparing itself for his possession. His groan against her throat had told her he’d smelled her desire. Hands hard against her hips, he’d pulled her lower body closer to his.
Now, as then, his need was tempered by tenderness. He looked like a wild thing ready to rip into her with fangs and cock, but Nix didn’t fear for her safety. As long as Tobias was around, she would never be in danger.
She’d felt just as wild. The pheromones coming from him had called to her demon. She’d felt her eyes flame, her strength increasing as the demon came to the surface. She’d moaned as her horn buds had popped through her skin. She’d tried to force him higher, but he’d resisted and she’d let him have his way.
Long fingers slipped her silky panties down her legs and a gentle push tumbled her back onto the bed. Tobias pulled her forward, big hands lifting her rump as he moved between her legs. His breath came hot against her sex, and then his tongue flicked against her swollen clit. She jerked and cried out, her hands coming down to grip his hair.
Another flick, then his tongue slid down to delve into her slick heat. She shuddered at each caress, each flutter, each thrust. When he withdrew she moaned in protest, only to lose her breath when two long fingers stroked into her core. “Don’t worry, honey, I’m not going anywhere,” he said, his voice vibrating against her sensitive flesh just before his mouth latched onto her clit. He sucked hard, tongue circling and flicking as those fingers thrust in and out, slowly at first then with increasing speed until she rocked against the bed with the force of his movement.
She screamed as she came, over and over, her body bowing and bucking, all the while he worked at her sex, mouth and hand driving her from one orgasm to another until he finally stopped. She sighed and opened her eyes, gaze centered on his cock as he got to his feet. She spread her legs farther apart, opening herself in invitation. He sank between her thighs, sliding his shaft between her swollen folds, coating it with the slick cream of her arousal.
Nix wrapped her legs around his lean hips. “I want you inside me. Now.”
The tenderness in his face mixed with lust, hardening his features. He drove into her, seating himself to the hilt with one thrust that wrung another cry of ecstasy from her. He pulled back, his strokes gentling.
She wanted more. “Harder,” she directed him, watching him as she dug her fingers into his taut buttocks. “Faster.”
His big body shuddered but he complied, his hard thrusts driving her into the mattress. She lifted her hips to meet each ferocious jab, her body clamping down around him. Another orgasm shattered her into a million pieces and she heard his roar, felt the jet of his release as he came deep within her. His fangs sliced into her throat, and the drawing of her blood threw her headlong into another climax. She’d dug her nails into his skin, the inner fire had burst free in the form of horn buds and burning eyes. Her demon had feasted on him, drawing on his life force. Sexual energy flooded her, filling her with a euphoria that was indescribable.
Finally he collapsed against her. He rolled to one side, holding her close, cock still snuggled inside her. They’d gone to sleep like that, arms around each other, the smell of sex heavy in the air.
Nix dragged herself away from the memory of that night, drawing in a shaky breath. She flopped onto her stomach and punched her pillow, bunching it beneath her head. A string of expletives burst from her before she tightened her lips and bottled the rest of it up. They’d been so good together, she and Tobias, and it had all gone so wrong after that night.
She had to stop this, now. What was between them was gone. Never to return. She’d have to be insane to get mixed up with him again. Going crazy was just what she was trying to avoid.
After that volatile memory she was unsettled again. Pain rolled across her forehead, her gut churned with demon fire. “Shit.” She sighed and climbed out of bed. She could tell she was going to be doing a lot of tai chi while Tobias was around. She got in the opening posture and drew in a breath. Here we go again.
Tobias took a final look around Rinda’s apartment, hands thrust deep into his pockets. Crime scene techs had been through here already and they’d found nothing out of place. Neither had he. But he’d had to look for himself, just in case they’d missed something.
They hadn’t. Damn it. The more time that passed the less chance he had of catching Rinda’s killer. The first twenty-four hours were critical, and he was getting nowhere fast. Her kitchen was meticulous, her bedroom less so. The comforter was half off the bed, the pillows askew. A pair of tennis shoes lay on their sides next to her closet, and a bra hung from the doorknob. Lingering odors in the air told him she’d had a male visitor, a human, recently. Perhaps even the night she’d died. The scent was too faint for him to be able to sniff out who it belonged to. Tobias needed to find out who she’d been seeing, and he’d have to do it through old-fashioned detective work, not by using his preternatural sense of smell. Since most murders were committed by someone the victim knew, the boyfriend could have something to do with Rinda’s death.
Tobias needed to go talk to Byron Maldonado. Rinda had been working for the quadrant vamp leader for the past few decades, had known Maldonado long before Tobias had met him. Maldonado needed to know she was dead.
More than that, he needed to know that someone was apparently targeting vamps in his jurisdiction. At the very least he might have an idea why. Tobias figured it was too much to hope that Maldona
do could actually stop it. And he was pretty sure the vamp leader had nothing to do with it, because he wouldn’t be so sloppy as to leave his kills lying around to be found.
Tobias decided to take Nix with him when he went to see Maldonado, even though it would make his job more difficult, having to contend with trying to ignore her sexy allure. But she and Maldonado had gotten along well enough before, and she read people well. Maldonado had a certain charm that Nix had been able to ignore. Tobias had to think she could still see through Maldonado’s bull to get to the truth.
He pulled out his phone and dialed her number. Though he needed to speak with her he was silently hoping the call would go straight to her voice mail. No such luck. Her sleepy voice came on the line after the second ring. Tobias glanced at his watch, wincing when he saw exactly how late it was. “Nix, honey, I’m sorry to call so late.”
“Tobias?”
He heard the rustle of sheets and pictured her sitting up. Which meant she’d been lying down, and that brought all sorts of carnal thoughts streaming through his mind. “Yeah, sorry.” He cleared his throat and tried to clear his head as well. “I need to go see Byron, let him know what’s going on.” He paused. “You haven’t already talked to him, have you? After the first murder?”
“No.” She sighed. “The first murder just happened yesterday, and there were lots of people we had to see. Maldonado was on my list, but not at the top.” Her yawn came through loud and clear. Mostly loud. “What time do you want to go see him?”
“You know what? Never mind. I’ll go see him by myself.”
“No! I’d like to go with you.” She yawned again. “Just tell me when.”
“I’ll pick you up at five thirty. That should give us plenty of time to still meet MacMillan at seven.”
“Okay,” Nix said sleepily before hanging up sans a good-bye.
Tobias grinned and disconnected the call. He was happy to have that moment to talk to her and hoped she could get back to sleep. A sleepy Nix was a cranky Nix, and she was bad-tempered enough just being around him.
On his way out of the apartment he paused by the desk at the edge of the living room. He was surprised to not find a computer anywhere in the apartment. He took a closer look at the desk and saw there was a dead spot that didn’t have as much dust on it as the rest of the desk. The dead space was the size of a laptop, yet there was no laptop in the place. Had Rinda taken it somewhere? Or had someone else been here and removed it to conceal whatever evidence it might contain?
A couple of books on astronomy sat at one edge of the desk, and some scribbled notes on the top page of a yellow legal pad. He flipped through the pages, again, still seeing nothing of interest. With one finger he traced along the handwriting. Rinda had learned to write some time back in the Middle Ages, taught by a kindly monk who was ahead of the times when it came to educating those of the female persuasion. Plus she was, had been, relentless when she wanted something.
Unfortunately, in most cases as soon as she got what she wanted she became bored and ready to move on. When first turned, he’d felt the same way as she. Neither one of them had been able to invest their hearts in a relationship. That is…until he’d met Nix. Things had always been different with her.
Tobias swayed, caught off guard by a wave of light-headedness. Between being focused on leads to find Natchook, the person responsible for murdering his leader, traveling back to Scottsdale from Fairbanks, and jumping right into this case, he hadn’t fed in close to four days. Before he did anything else, he needed sustenance.
Twenty minutes later, he leaned one hip against his kitchen counter as he waited for the microwave to complete its cycle. While blood drawn fresh from a willing victim was always the optimal choice of nourishment, this was an acceptable second best. The anticoagulant it was treated with gave the blood a slight piquant bouquet. Drinking any more than a pint was gluttonous; it didn’t take much to provide appropriate nourishment. All in all, this wasn’t a bad substitute.
At least, that’s what he told himself. But truthfully, once he’d had Nix there was nothing else that could compare. So in his travels he’d taken blood from various blood banks or the wrist of an occasional willing donor. Now he made do with blood provided by an entrepreneurial college student who was making a lot of money with his home delivery service. Rather like the milkmen of fifty years ago, the young man had lined up donors and made deliveries once a week, leaving the sealed glass bottles in insulated coolers on his customers’ doorsteps. Some vampires merely took off the caps and drank the blood directly from the bottle. Tobias didn’t care for his meals cold, so when he could he poured the blood into a coffee mug and heated it up to body temperature or above.
The microwave dinged. He pulled out the ceramic mug and brought it to his lips. The first sip singed his tongue, a pain that quickly faded as the liquid nourishment slid down his throat. As it hit his stomach and was quickly absorbed by his system, he closed his eyes to savor the feel of his body warming, his heart picking up a dull beat, the tingle along the tips of his fingers and toes.
He’d much rather take blood from Nix. God, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed her until he’d seen her again. No, that wasn’t quite true. He hadn’t let himself dwell on how much he’d missed her, that pixie face, the stubborn way she’d tilt her chin when she got mad at him, the fire in her eyes when they made love. Not that he was going to get back with her. She needed more than he could give her. She needed humanity, something he no longer had, to help her keep her own in charge. When they’d been together all those years before, he’d become more and more concerned at how less and less she’d been able to control her demon tendencies. Finally he’d walked away for her own good.
He’d seen tonight how well she’d maintained her control. Perhaps partly because she was on the job, but he hoped mainly because she’d matured a bit and had found something that worked. Or it could be as simple as the fact that she wasn’t routinely shtupping a vampire.
He walked to the sink and rinsed his mug. He put it on the top rack of the dishwasher and paused. It was astonishing how easily he’d slipped back into his old routine. He’d been back in town, back in this house that he’d maintained during his absence, less than twenty-four hours, yet in many ways it felt like he’d never been gone.
Except for the empty place next to him in his bed, things seemed much as he’d left them.
Nix stifled a yawn and glanced at her watch again. It was just after six o’clock in the morning and because of her tumbled thoughts she hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night. The sofa on which she sat was the most comfortable she’d ever parked her rear on. She held back another yawn and resisted the urge to get even more comfortable. She’d fall asleep if she did. She should never have sat down to begin with, but it would have been rude to refuse.
She looked at Byron Maldonado sitting in his big leather armchair next to a crackling fireplace. Legs crossed, he was the picture of elegant grace. Yet she was all too aware of the dark danger that lay beneath the surface.
Tobias had broken the news about Amarinda to him, and now the other vampire’s eyes were black rage surrounded by crimson sorrow. The look in his eyes reminded Nix of a wounded animal.
“What happened?” Maldonado asked, his gaze flicking from Tobias to her and back again.
When Tobias seemed unable to share the details of the grisly death, Nix said as gently as she could, “There’s no easy way to say this. She was eviscerated.”
Maldonado’s lips thinned. “Bastards,” he muttered. His eyes grew wilder. “Why?”
“We were hoping you could help us on that one.” Tobias leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. His voice was low, calming. “What had she gotten herself into, Byron? She called me in Alaska, asked me to come home. Do you have any idea what she wanted to talk to me about?”
Maldonado closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, not really.” He looked at Tobias, the fine lines at the corners of his eye
s deepening. “She changed, Tobias. Over the last several months I noticed a shift in her personality and it was not for the better. She was…jaded. Bored. But when she talked about the stars, about space…” Sadness flickered over his face. “She was more animated than I had seen her in years. Centuries.”
“Was that what she wanted to talk to me about? Space?” Tobias looked as lost as Nix felt.
Maldonado lifted one shoulder. “I honestly don’t know. She had taken a leave of absence from…my organization while she attended school.” He leaned his head against the back of the chair. “But I never thought she would end up…” With a speed as violent as it was unexpected, he surged to his feet and slammed his fist into the mantle. The wood fractured and splintered, the end falling loose from the river rock it had been embedded in. “Damn it to hell.” He bent his head and stared into the hearth. After several seconds he turned back to them. Nix noticed his eyes had returned to their normal rich hazel. Good thing he’d gotten control of himself. Though Nix and Tobias were trained and could take care of themselves, Maldonado was…Maldonado. He’d come through the rift at the same time as Deoul, which made him the oldest vampire around. At least if there were any older she’d never heard of them.
“Rinda was the second victim, Byron.” Tobias stood, too, though he didn’t move any closer to the other vampire. Maybe he didn’t trust that Maldonado’s control was as strong as he’d like it to be. “The first was Johnson Pickett. Know him?”
Maldonado shook his head. He leaned his shoulder against the river rock of the fireplace. “No. I’d heard of him, of course. But I never had any reason to look him up. He was harmless, as far as I know.”
Kiss of the Vampire Page 6
