Wicked After Dark: 20 Steamy Paranormal Tales of Dragons, Vampires, Werewolves, Shifters, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More

by Mina Carter

  She wasn’t supposed to have been in the country this early. The message he had received said to expect Kurt’s wife to arrive and discuss a case about her missing sister, but not for another 3 days. Information could sometimes get garbled but he had double checked the date and time of the arrival. It seemed odd to him that Kurt would have sent his wife down alone.

  There was much more to this situation and Kidd knew that the best option was to get this woman’s story, before he started to make calls back to the home office. It was way too early to make any sort of assumptions. He would get his answers from her in due time. At least she had the smarts to quickly dial his contact number and leave the line open long enough for him to realize that she had been grabbed. With the blessings of GPS tracking he knew right where to meet the kidnappers and he was backed up by some of his best men, with plenty of firepower.

  He looked at her again and then told her, “I need your cellphone, camera, any electronics you have with you.” She opened her small backpack, apparently relieved that she still had it with her after all that had transpired. She pulled out her phone and handed it over. Kidd quickly pulled the battery out and by habit he looked over the phone for anything unusual.

  The thick jungle canopy swelled and sank over hidden rolling hills and then finally, over one last ridge along a deserted coastline. By now the two helicopters had gone their separate ways. The helicopter carrying Kidd and the girl hovered over a level clearing atop a rocky bluff that displayed a good view to the sea before them. The helicopter set down just long enough for them to jump out with a couple of duffle bags and backpacks.

  The noisy chopper lifted up and disappeared over the horizon, while the two gathered their bags. Kidd led the girl into the forested hillside and down a winding path until they came to a larger dirt road, where they stopped. Silently, Kidd walked over to the side of the road and into the thick brush. He pulled back a large camouflage net that had kept his brown jeep hidden.

  There was no roof, only a windshield and a roll bar. He picked up the bags and tossed them into the back. He looked over to her gave her a smile and said, “Hop in and I’ll get you someplace to catch your breath.” She climbed in the passenger side and noticed how the road looked like nothing more than a river of red mud and rocks that wound through the trees. She locked her seatbelt as tight as she could.

  The jeep jolted off bouncing and turning. Classic rock music crackled through the speakers. She had been wondering what the mysterious Kidd would look like since she started this trip. There were just too many Hollywood stereotypes to choose from so she left her mind’s canvas blank until she actually met him. It appeared that he was in his early thirties no more than thirty-four, no less than twenty-seven she guessed. She was twenty-five and she figured that if they were from the same decade they could at least speak the same language. She took another look at him and then thought about it for a minute.

  He seemed less like the James Bond that she imagined, but not quite the Magnum P.I. she had imagined either. He did have the unbuttoned Hawaiian print shirt and the sunglasses though. Lexi liked his short, but thick head of black hair atop a face with rugged handsome features. Yet somehow he still had a bit of boyish cuteness about him.

  His body was covered in hard lines of muscles that were breathtakingly defined, but certainly not bulky like those over inflated body builders. His biceps were bigger than any she had seen and his shoulders were very broad. She could barely take her eyes off of his chest until the breeze pulled back his unbuttoned shirt. She blushed at her own reaction to seeing such well-defined abs. She was glad that she had put her sunglasses on so he wouldn’t notice how she was checking him out. She turned to look ahead at the road.

  Why should it matter what he looks like, this is business anyway. A guy that looks that hot is guaranteed to be a conceited prick. Lexi still had not gotten a look at his eyes and she was curious to get a better view of his face and find out if he matched any of the pictures on Kurt’s desk. She looked back and since she couldn’t see his face, she let her eyes wander down his body. I’d love to run my hands or tongue all over that. I thought only photo-shopped guys in magazines looked that hot.

  She knew for sure she had to be blushing as she looked down at his shorts and saw the visibly large bulge on the inside of his thigh. She looked back at the road ahead. Holy cats! Holy cats! Is that all him? No way!

  She remembered Kurt telling her that some of his younger friends had broken away from the military and the government to work more in the freelance field. Mercenaries, soldiers-of-fortune he called them.

  The rapid change in scenery took Lexi’s breath away. Sunlight flashed through the cover of greens until it suddenly broke open to blue. Before them waves crashed over a rocky shoreline that met a steep bluff. Lexi imagined it to be a green fortress wall against the sea.

  The jeep slowed to a stop. She looked up at the wooden stairs that went up and left to a landing, and then up and right to a deck that was perched some forty feet above them. There, attached to the deck was a single story wooden beach house.

  The wood siding had only remnants of chipped and faded blue and green paint common to coastal houses in that region, although the majority of the colors had long ago surrendered to the sea air. The windows were wide and covered with wooden slat shutters. The screen door looked as if it had seen plenty of abuse.

  Kidd opened the screen door and unlocked the deadbolt on a heavy wooden door. “Welcome to my humble shack. Nothing fancy here but it’s pretty comfortable and it’s my home.” The room was open and airy. He raised the shutters and blinds to allow sunlight to stream in through many large windows. A warm salty breeze gently came in from the sea to join them.

  Lexi looked about the room. Several tall green leafy plants were scattered on the dark and worn wooden plank floors. Comfortable furniture of wood and wicker surrounded a large Persian rug. The walls were faded gray wood and well covered by shelves and assorted objects. She couldn’t quite ascertain whether they had been set out for display or just left wherever they had been set down. There were a few oriental statues, Greek vases, African masks, and more. In any case, she liked the fact that while it wasn’t dirty it was filled with the man’s things that were so varied. It spurred her curiosity about him.

  “So this is the lair of a secret agent for hire? It looks like a nautical antique shop.” She said. Kidd didn’t answer her. He was out on the deck and it sounded like he was talking to someone outside. Probably on his phone. She thought.

  The main room had a few doors that opened to what she presumed to be a bedroom and some closets. The living room was separated from a spacious kitchen by a peninsula countertop. The kitchen seemed like it was better organized than her own and she wondered if Kidd enjoyed cooking. It was hard to imagine a man like Kidd making a soufflé. She watched Kidd walk into the kitchen. She guessed he was about 6 feet tall. Maybe an inch or two taller. She had not known many men in her life and she had never been to the house of a man that lived by himself. She was intensely curious.

  “Can I offer you anything? Something to drink? Water, iced tea, coffee?” He asked.

  “Iced tea would be perfect, thank you. So how long before I can get back to civilization?”

  “Well, a day at least but that depends on why you came down here to begin with. Of course, around here the weather can have a lot of say in it too. I will have to take you by boat up the coast until we can reach a rendezvous point, or someplace to fly out from.”

  He held a glass and poured the tea from a pitcher. He turned his head slightly and raised one eyebrow. He walked toward her and she looked at the leather shoulder holster that held an ivory handled silver revolver with a noticeably long barrel. It reminded her of something out of an old Western. “Now what would you shoot with that?” She chuckled.

  “Bad guys. Werewolves maybe.” Kidd smiled, “actually it’s unlikely I’d shoot it at anything. Really it’s all about presence.”

  “Presence?” Sh
e said, with an arched brow.

  “In this line of work nothing can be more intimidating than a big gun.” He winked and smiled.

  Did he just wink at me? I don’t think I’ve ever been winked at. What’s up with those eyes anyway?

  She noticed that he was already performing before her. Strolling up to her shirtless, save the brown shoulder holster against his tanned thick chest. This is the guy I was checking out in the pictures! She finally got a good look at his eyes and figured out why they seemed unusual, one eye was green and the other was blue. “I think I get it.” She said.

  “Perhaps, if you’re lucky.” He laughed with yet another wink and handed her the glass.

  “Ha ha! Very funny. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it takes more than a big barrel and a cheesy one-liner for me. Although, I’m sure you get plenty of company up in your little love nest.”

  Kidd couldn’t tell for sure if she was playing along or being sarcastic. “I’m sorry, I have a habit of keeping things lighthearted and honestly you are my very first female guest. So congratulations!”

  “Um okay, I’ll buy that.” Lexi smiled at him and was amused at how he seemed genuinely sorry when he thought he may have offended her. She decided to let him know that she didn’t mind his playfulness. “And—just for the record, a big pistol is a pretty good start!” She winked back at him and was rewarded with a beaming smile.

  “Seriously I need to know a few things. In case the bad guys decide to come looking for you. What am I up against here and how did a nice girl like you end up with an old bum like Kurt?”

  “Well I have a little confession, maybe two.” She said softly while carefully gauging his reaction. “I’m not Kate. That would be my older sister. My name is Alexandria, people call me Lexi. I’m here to meet with you about finding my sister. She sent me a letter which was odd enough that she didn’t call. Even though we haven’t seen each other in a few years, we would still each drop everything and go to the end of the earth for each other, even to Medellin Colombia.” She hesitated and watched him look around the room.

  “Okay keep talking,” pausing as he recalled her name “Lexi. Some people just call me Kidd, but my first name is Ryan.”

  “The letter only said that she needed me to explicitly follow her instructions.” Lexi pulled the folded and tattered letter from her backpack and handed it to Kidd. “Here take a look it’s pretty badly damaged. She has been out of the country for a few weeks now, apparently working on some sort of archaeological research.”

  Her face looked saddened and Ryan picked up on it. “It was mailed from Israel. She told me what she needed, but the letter was badly damaged before I received it. She wanted me to go to her house, pick up an old coin from her safe and have you come with me to bring it to her.” She watched as Ryan looked over the letter. He held it up to try to see if he could make out the illegible parts.

  Ryan interrupted, “and you didn’t think it was a good idea to just ask Kurt what was going on?”

  “No. You don’t know, do you?” She waited, collecting her thoughts before breaking the news to him. “I’m sorry, but Kurt has been dead for almost two years now.”

  Ryan’s hands dropped to his side and he looked at Lexi. “What? How? I haven’t heard a thing.” Ryan stared out the window, silently looking at the sea as he processed the unexpected news about the fate of an old friend. “Wow I guess I really have been off the radar a little too long. Tell me what happened. Please.”

  “Sorry, I thought you knew. It wasn’t an accident though. The medical examiner listed his death as suicide but Kate never believed the findings. I have a hard time believing it. You knew Kurt, I mean, that is completely out of character. He wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone. It just didn’t make sense.”

  Ryan sat on the arm of a worn leather chair. “I know it seems out of character, Lexi. I can tell you Kurt was one of those career Special Forces and CIA guys. It may sound corny, but they have this unspoken warrior code of conduct.”

  “A warrior like you?” Lexi said softly.

  Ryan nodded. “Yes and no. I’m not like Kurt. I lack the patriotism and devotion to government. Well anyway, these are the most intelligent focused and stable people you will meet. The dark side that comes with that is a lust for danger and an addiction for adrenaline.

  Kurt was older than me. He was just finishing up his tour as a CIA liaison with the Naval Special Warfare Command when I was the youngest guy just starting out on my SEAL Team. He taught me a lot. One thing that he and all the rest taught me by example was their ethos.

  I guess you could compare the mindset to the old samurai. It wasn’t just some pledge or oath. It was an entire way of life that they expected each other to live by. The center of it all was honor. Honor to themselves and to each other. If ever they felt they had broken the way of life,” Ryan paused as if he didn’t want to finish, “Well the Samurai would...”

  “I know, ritual suicide. So you think that’s what drove Kurt to it?” Lexi asked.

  “I have no idea. I just wanted to let you know that the act of a suicide could actually be in line with his character and statistically they have a higher suicide rate because as their lives go on, they may find themselves unable to comply with the almost impossible code of conduct. Now, exactly what happened? Who found him and how did they say he did it?”

  Tears welled up in Lexi’s eyes as she struggled to speak the words that didn’t want to leave her tongue. She hated discussing the subject more than anything. Kurt was more than a brother-in-law to her. He was the brother she had always yearned for.

  Ryan gently took the back of his finger and wiped the tears from Lexi’s cheek. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be so–.”

  “No, no. It’s okay. Well it’s not okay what happened but I haven’t talked to anyone about it in so long. He was a part of my life also, for many years. I think of how hard it hit Kate. She sealed it all up inside and now I’m afraid it’s eating her alive.”

  Lexi stopped to wipe her eyes and took a deep breath to regain her composure. “Anyway, he used a gun. It looked like he simply drove out to a forested park and shot himself. That’s where some park ranger found him. The feds handled the entire investigation themselves. It took a long time and they picked Kurt’s life apart looking at every detail...our lives too.”

  “That’s normal for people with national security clearances. If there’s a suicide they are double checking, triple checking to be sure there was no blackmail or espionage that he could have been involved in. They also need to be certain that no classified information that he was privy to could have been compromised in any way. Did anyone tell you if they found anything out of the ordinary?”

  “They said that there was nothing out of the ordinary, but I did snoop on them and listened in on them when they were in his office.”

  Lexi’s eyes lit up and she looked at Ryan. Her tone changed from somber to astonishment. “How could I not remember? They were looking into a trip he made to Israel quite a few years ago. I don’t know when it was, but for some reason that was one thing I heard them mentioning as it was NOT on official business. You know he traveled a lot. That was the only trip that concerned them. Now Kate has gone to Israel! That must be what she is up to. Trying to figure out something about Kurt’s death or something he was involved in. She is looking for answers herself! I don’t know what she hopes to find or why she is heading to some archaeological site, but at least her stop in Israel seems like it has to do with Kurt.”

  “It could be. I’d say with some confidence it at least has something to do with Kurt, but we can’t assume anything. Don’t forget that for both archaeologists and anti-terrorism specialists Israel is one of those places that pulls them in like a magnet. So it wouldn’t be too surprising to find out that both Kurt and Kate had gone there at different times for unrelated reasons.”

  Lexi admired Ryan’s level-headed reasoning. “I suppose you’re right. Still, I’m going to keep both scenarios in mind for now.
”

  “And it doesn’t explain the coin. Do you know if that coin was around anyplace where the investigators would have looked at it or taken it to examine it?” Ryan quizzed her.

  “Not that I know of. I just found out that the coin existed the other day. I never heard them mention it, but they may have been looking for it and just didn’t want to say anything to us. They tore through everything so I have no idea where it was hidden during all of that. I know that Kate put it in the safe later on after they completed the investigation, or they would have found it.” Lexi took the coin out of a camera case in her backpack and handed it to Ryan who examined it. He handed it back to her after looking it over for just a short while. His reaction was nothing more than a simple shrug of his shoulders.

  “Pretty big for a coin. Strange looking too. I guess we can’t worry about it yet, not until we find your sister. I’ll get a hold of some people and find out where she has been traveling, and I can get a good idea of where she is now and what she is doing. Now for my next question.” Ryan looked at her and spoke with genuine concern. “Why in the hell did you disregard your instructions from my company? That was pretty risky for you. Good thing I got your call and was able to track you!”

  “Honestly, I had no patience to sit in Virginia for four days waiting while my sister is missing. I took matters in my own hands and flew down here. It’s not like I planned to get grabbed by those goons!”

  “Well, you’re lucky you got a hold of me. I guess I don’t blame you. The home office likes to leave a large window for travel to be sure things are in place, but they don’t do a very good job of taking the travelers concerns into the equation. Now, meeting you in a firefight well, talk about presence! I hate to see what sort of war you would start just going to pick up your dry cleaning!”