Passion For Hire (Passion #5)

by J. a Melville

  The older woman smiled at me. “Ah Faith; what a lovely name that is.” She held her hand out to me. “My name is Nadine.”

  Chapter Twenty One

  Faith

  I smiled at her. “So where’s this chocolate you spoke of, or was that just to lull me into a false sense of security so I gave up part of my rock for you?” I joked.

  She laughed softly and dug around in her purse, producing a white paper bag which surprised me. I’d been thinking a block of chocolate, but this was more an assortment of various kinds of what appeared to be homemade chocolates. She held the bag out to me and I stuck my hand in, pulling out some sort of white chocolate. I popped it into my mouth and bit down, moaning as the heavenly sweet flavour seemed to explode across my tongue.

  “Have more Faith. One piece of chocolate will not mend a broken heart. Here.” She held the bag out to me again and this time, I took two pieces of chocolate; one caramel and one with a minty centre.

  Once I’d enjoyed the chocolate, we both sat staring at the ocean as it constantly moved and distorted the image of the near full moon that was reflected in it.

  “So who is this young man who has you sitting here alone, looking so sad, well until I came along?”

  I sighed. “His name is Adrian. He is supposed to be with me but he won’t accept that. He is gorgeous, so handsome and sexy. He was my first.” I shot Nadine a shy smile. “I…I love him and the sex is incredible but he keeps saying he’s not good enough for me and he wants me to leave him alone. Yet he comes to me and we fight and we have sex. Only tonight we…” I fell silent, suddenly aware I was probably being too open with a stranger.

  “You had sex tonight? Is that what you were going to say? I presume you fought again, since you are here and not with this young man?”

  “Yes, you are right.” I said quietly. I sat for a moment in silence before forcing a smile to my lips. “So what’s your story of a broken heart then Nadine?”

  She smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “My story is about a young man I’ve known for a couple of years. He has been my friend, my lover. The sex was amazing and his stamina.” She stopped and shot me a quick look. “He could just keep going and going and the pleasure was like nothing I’ve ever experienced.” She fell silent and I watched her, waiting for her to continue.

  “So what happened? What went wrong?” I asked.

  “He came to me needing me to help him. He said he was having problems and I took him into my home. We were intimate and at the end of it he told me there would be no more, that we couldn’t see each other anymore. He told me there was a woman who was messing with his mind.” She turned to me and something in her eyes had changed. “He told me this woman had said she loved him but he didn’t love her. I told him I loved him, and do you know what he did?” Her eyes burned into mine when she turned to me again. “He was horrified, he ran. He used me, and he ran and told me that was it, that we wouldn’t see one another anymore.” Her voice had taken on a harsher tone and suddenly I didn’t feel so comfortable with this stranger. “He denied that he loved this woman and yet, even with me naked, he…he couldn’t get it up.”

  I stared at her in growing horror. Something wasn’t right. This woman wasn’t right. Something about her story was familiar yet not right. As I stared at her, waiting for her to say more, suddenly almost afraid to hear what she had to say, a horrific cramping pain hit me, causing me to double over, groaning in pain.

  “What…did…you…do?” I gasped, clutching at her arm. As soon as I touched her flashes of images hit me.

  I saw Adrian sleeping on a bed. I’d had this image before, I recognised it. A woman climbed onto the bed and lay behind him. He turned to her, smiling and she leaned over him, her face coming into view, something that hadn’t happened last time. When I saw her face, I gasped, it was Nadine.

  The image changed and I saw this woman again with Adrian. She had her hand wrapped around his cock and she was trying to arouse him but he was limp and unresponsive. He pulled back and I saw what looked like horror on her face. She said something to him and although I couldn’t hear his response, it seemed he was arguing with her.

  Again there was a flash and another vision filled my head. Adrian was leaving what I presumed was Nadine’s home, he was holding her face and staring intently at her as he spoke, and I was pretty sure he was mind controlling her. He walked down to his car and I saw Nadine turn and head inside again. She smiled and then began to laugh. I got a closer look at her face and gasped in shock. There was such anger and hatred showing in her eyes, and something else, something that made my stomach plunge.

  I snatched my hand from Nadine’s arm and turned to her. “What are you? I saw you. You know Adrian. Are you one of his clients? You told him you loved him? Where did you come from?” My eyes widened. “Oh my God, was that you who followed me? You stopped following me though. How did you know I’d come here? That other car, it’s yours isn’t it?”

  “I’m a seer Faith. I’m not unlike you. I can see the future. Not everything but I knew what Adrian was, I knew he was vampire, but I’ve pretended not to know. I’ve let him think he’s mind controlled me every time he’s come and made love to me. It’s the only way I could be sure he would keep coming back. I’ve had a very fulfilling sex life with him. We became good friends. He chose to come to me when he couldn’t handle the pressure you’ve been putting on him, and the fighting with his family. He could have come to love me but you had to get in the way. Look at you; you’re just some skinny, pale bit of fluff. My darling Adrian would never be interested in someone like you.” Her tone was sneering as she looked me up and down.

  I opened my mouth to say something when another powerful cramping pain had me groaning and doubling over. “What…did…you…do…to…me?” I ground out through gritted teeth, as I tried to ride out the pain. “You already knew who I was, what I am, didn’t you? If you’re a seer you should have already known about Adrian and me. You would have already known everything about us.”

  She laughed softly. “Of course I knew. Not everything. Like you, what I see is not always as it will be. Things can change, destiny can be altered. If he wasn’t so preoccupied with you and his family problems he would want me, I know this. I need you to realise that Adrian is destined to be mine. If you’re not around I can try and convince him of that. I can do things to help, how shall I say it.” She paused as if searching for the right words. “Twist his arm. I have a few little tricks I can call upon.”

  “Adrian is vampire he will not bend to your will.” I told her. “Plus my visions told me he is my destiny and I haven’t managed to convince him of that yet. Why would you think you’d have a better chance with him?”

  “I know he’s vampire, I’ve always known he was. I also know you are vampire or half a one at least. Now that must be a crushing blow to your self-esteem mustn’t it? You couldn’t even turn full vampire.” She made some tsk tsk sound and gave me a pitying look.

  “Adrian sired me, didn’t you know that? He made me what I am.” I gasped, fighting the intense pain as another cramp left me writhing in agony.

  That seemed to stop Nadine momentarily. Hadn’t she ‘seen’ that at all? “Why would my darling have made you?” She spat the words out like they were leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

  “His son tried to turn me, Adrian saved me from a certain death. He seems to sire only half breeds or hybrid vampires.” I tried to give her a gloating, smug look around my pain. It was all just a show of bravado though. “Adrian is my sire. We will always share that special connection that the sires have for those they turn. You can remove me from his life, but I will never be forgotten to him. Not to mention he was my first, he took my virginity and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced.”

  “I will make sure he forgets all about you. He will be mine, he will have no choice.” She snapped.

  “What are you going to do? Please, don’t kill him.” I begged.

  She la
ughed again. “I’m not going to kill my darling vampire. I love him, why would I kill him? No, I just need you out of the way. It’s you I’m going to kill.”

  “How will you do that? I’m still half vampire, a hybrid and stronger than a human.” Again I tried with the false bravado, not wanting to let this woman see my fear. “You might be able to make me sick, but there are only so many ways a vampire can be killed.”

  “Yes but you can still eat human food.” Nadine raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh why does my darling think anything of you at all, and why does he want to lie between your pale skinny thighs? You’re not very smart are you?”

  My mind was reeling with all that she’d said and then cold, harsh reality hit me. It had to be the chocolate. As soon as I made the connection in my head and faced the reality, another severe cramp hit me and I cried out.

  “What’s in that chocolate? What have you done? Is it just going to make me sick? You can’t kill me, I’m vampire. Poison won’t work.”

  “Oh Faith, Faith, you are too innocent. Is that what he loves about you; your innocence, your naivety? There are ways to kill vampires. You know that they are not indestructible. Nothing is truly immortal. You are perhaps easier to harm because you can consume human food and because of that, you are still partially human. So that means you can be poisoned. I had hoped you’d eat more of the chocolate so the effect was a bit faster. Still, you should have had enough in those three pieces.” She paused for a moment. “You know what makes this all the more delicious? The poison isn’t going to kill you. As you said, you’re vampire, poison won’t kill you” She shot me a triumphant look. “It won’t kill you, it will merely paralyse you. To anyone looking at you, you will appear to be dead. Even darling Adrian will think you’re dead if he finds you.” She frowned momentarily. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see that, whether he finds you or not.” She gave me what was supposed to be a smile but it looked more like a twisted curl of her lips. “Do you have any idea what torture it will be for you? You are going to look and seem dead to everyone. You will be unable to move, speak, nothing, but you will hear everything, see everyone if they bend over you, and your mind will still work. You are going to become a prisoner of your own body. Enjoy. Of course the icing on the cake will be the damage done to you. If you spend hours lying in the sun, even with that mark on your neck, how long do you think you’ll take that hot burning sun for?”

  “You’re fucking nuts.” I spat. “Do you really think you’re going to get away with this?”

  “I know I will. I will get my darling Adrian back too. Once you’re out of the picture and he realises that he couldn’t bend my mind to do his bidding, he’ll come back to me. There will be nothing to stop us being together.”

  “You are completely mad; you have to be, to think you will get Adrian by getting me out of the picture. He doesn’t want me anyway so all this has been for nothing. You could have had him. I don’t want a man who doesn’t want me.”

  “I know you are lying. You know he will be upset when he learns of your death. He might deny he loves you but I saw him.” Nadine stood and began to pace up and down in front of me. “I was naked for him. Normally he will make love to me over and over again. He will demand I take him in my mouth, that I pleasure him until he fills me and I have to swallow his essence. He couldn’t get hard for me and he lied. He thought he’d controlled my mind and he told me we’d made love already. Do you have any idea how hurtful it is, and how disappointed I felt to not be woman enough for that man?”

  “I...I don’t know Nadine.” I tried hastily changing tactics. I would act like her confidante, show concern and sympathy for her. “I can only imagine what a blow to you that would have been, but Adrian is a man and they can be so horrible. He has hurt me too you know. He has said and done some very hurtful things to me.”

  Nadine made some noise in her throat. “Do not take me for an imbecile Faith. I know what you are trying to do. You talk of him not wanting you, of hurting you and yet I can smell his essence on you. You spread your legs for him only a couple of hours ago. He couldn’t get it up for me and yet you…you he gets turned on by and can get it up. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  “I don’t know and I’m sorry, so sorry.” I stood to walk to her but my head began to swim, everything starting to spin. I clutched a hand to my forehead waiting for things to still again. “Please Nadine, don’t do this, don’t make me a scapegoat for your pain.” I begged. I tried to take another step towards her but I collapsed, everything spinning faster now.

  As I lay on the sand, groaning from the cramps that seemed to have me under siege now, I watched Nadine’s feet approach me. She bent down and I struggled to lift my head enough to meet her hard, hateful eyes.

  “You have to die.” Her voice was filled with venom. “I can’t truly make Adrian mine unless he thinks you’re dead. You are not suitable for him. You are a worthless little piece of shit. You are nothing and I will make him see you are nothing more than dog shit on the sole of his shoes.” She straightened and I couldn’t focus on her any more as swirling grey was starting to cloud my vision. “Goodbye Faith.” Her voice came to me as if from a distance.

  “No, don’t leave me here.” I said, finding it harder to speak. It felt like I had a mouthful of marbles.

  “Oh, you’re probably right. I can’t leave you here now can I? We don’t want you found too soon.” She bent towards me again and wrapped a hand around my hair.

  When she started to drag me up the beach by it, I cried out from the pain. After a few minutes it didn’t hurt any more. In fact nothing was hurting any more. The stomach cramps stopped and Nadine’s voice as she droned on to me about something felt like it was coming from the other end of a tunnel.

  I was finally aware that I wasn’t moving any more and I fought to open my eyes. I was still on the beach as there was sand under me but there were patches of some kind of long grass around me. Vaguely it registered that Nadine had found an area where I probably wouldn’t be noticed too quickly. That knowledge scared the hell out of me but before I could even consider trying to move from where I lay, the darkness rushed up and pulled me under and everything went black. Before I could cry out, beg her to reconsider, anything, I was sucked down into nothing.

  Adrian

  Adrian was getting restless. The discussions with Lucas and Katherine had gone on for what felt like ages. She was delighted with Fabian’s proposal and that he’d found her a perfect place to spend the rest of her days. Katherine was suffering from stage four lung cancer, a cruel irony given she’d never smoked. She’d ignored the symptoms when it first began, due to work commitments, all at the time when she might have been able to receive treatment. She’d raised Lucas alone since his father had run out on them years ago and no one knew where he was.

  After listening to the conversation for a while, he was finally allowing himself to accept what everyone had been trying to tell him. That if he hadn’t come into their lives, they would still be struggling in their tiny apartment. It had been dank, mouldy and cold. Because he had turned Lucas and brought them both to live in the house he’d purchased, it had improved both their lives. They were in a warm, comfortable home, no concerns or pressures, no mould and with all the medication provided to keep Katherine as healthy as possible. She had a few other health issues as well as the lung cancer, and had made it clear she had no desire for surgery or any attempts made to save her. She just wanted to live out the rest of her time as comfortably as possible and the lifestyle Adrian had given her had already given her longer than the doctor’s original prognosis.

  It eased his guilt a little, but he still felt responsible for having kept her and Lucas like prisoners in his home for two years. Now his father was going to give her the lifestyle she deserved, to see out the rest of her life.

  Adrian wondered how much the villa had cost him and he knew he would have to pay his father back. He couldn’t allow him to finance the clean-up of his mistake. From what
Fabian had told Katherine, it couldn’t be cheap. The villa was two bedrooms, set up for people in wheelchairs and fully furnished. Medical assistance was merely the push of a button away. There were fifty other residents in the surrounding villas which made up a kind of isolated community of men and women. Not everyone there was terminal, but they were generally people who required full time medical care or regular care. The complex had its own medical staff and a small private hospital within it too. From what his father had said Katherine would have everything her heart desired to keep her happy and comfortable for however much longer she lived.

  It seemed a little extreme to have bought the villa but they weren’t available for rent, and given they were exclusive; there was already a waiting list of people wanting in. Fabian had jumped the queue with a mix of mind control and money. Money talked after all and he had offered enough apparently to get the villa for Katherine. The speed with which his father had achieved all this amazed Adrian but then Fabian was authoritative, commanding and when he wanted to be, incredibly charming. He would have used his power, charm, mind control and the natural attraction humans had to vampires to get what he wanted. Of course people didn’t know they were vampire, but with the exaggerated good looks, the appealing scent, and ability to mind control, it was easy for them to get what they wanted, and to make humans do their bidding.

  Of course the mind control didn’t work on anyone who wasn’t human. If they were part human or humans with special skills, they couldn’t be controlled. His mother Sirene was a witch and Adrian wondered if his father would have fallen in love with her had he been able to control her. He used to treat women badly from what he’d heard. He’d mind control them, fuck them and then leave. He had women on tap who had no memory of him ever been there. Mind control hadn’t worked on Sirene and she’d slowly not only driven him crazy, but she’d worked her way into his cold, dark heart. Everyone said she’d been the best thing to happen to Fabian because it had softened him, made him kinder, a little gentler.