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

by Mina Carter

  Billy explained about his parents, which I already knew from Morpheus, and then described Bacchus’ involvement and the radical changes that he was proposing.

  “Oh my!” My eyes grew round realizing the pivotal role my father had played in the past and how he hoped to improve the future. None of what I was learning about him fit in with his reputation of being indifferent from anything that didn’t directly affect him. I had assumed that his detachment was the primary reason my mother had left him. Maybe I had gotten it all wrong.

  “Yeah, a lot has happened since you took off. Maybe you can fill me in on the details of where you went and who you might have seen.”

  I was saved from answering by the purposeful approach of a twenty something year old woman in a smart pencil skirt with her auburn hair in an efficient bun. “I was just coming to get you.” She gave me an appraising look. “I’m Lorraine Church. You must be the woman who has brightened my boss’ mood.”

  My fingers tightened on Billy’s hand. “He’s my light.” The vivid color in my world of grey.

  Lorraine smiled pushing back the door to the VIP lounge so we could enter. There weren’t any seats, but the space was big enough to hold about fifty elegantly attired guests, mainly couples, most of whom were ignoring the appetizers on the buffet table and congregating around the bar instead. Lorraine moved alongside us. “I’ll walk you through like usual. How would you like me to handle the introductions?”

  “Just say she’s my girlfriend.” Billy gave me a fiercely possessive look. “That’ll do for now.”

  “Will do.” Lorraine’s face flashed with surprise but she quickly hid it. “Dennis Cocker, vice president of Sony Records is wearing the Lion’s mask. He’s coming up first by the buffet. The woman with him in the ivory Venetian mask is his wife, Jane.”

  I walked the room with Billy, Lorraine efficiently prepping him for each person he met, and Billy introduced me proudly to each in turn. Never failing to make me understand how special I was to him.

  By the time we were through working the room an hour and a half later, I was impressed with Lorraine, and beyond ready to be alone with Billy to show him properly how much I appreciated him.

  Billy put his warm hands on either side of my neck where the dress left my skin bared. He massaged my tense flesh with expert fingers and I leaned my head back into him.

  “Can we go now?” I asked.

  “Not quite yet, I’m afraid.” His brows pulled together. He turned to Lorraine. “Did Miss Bellerose go back to coffee and dessert with the others?”

  “My mamere is here?” Tension slammed back into me, my stomach retracting into a tight ball.

  Billy nodded.

  “The caterers just removed everything from their room,” Lorraine explained unaware of the sudden shift in mood between her boss and me as she glanced at her phone. “I’ll walk you back.”

  “Thanks, Lorraine.” Billy didn’t take his eyes from me. “But we can probably find our own way. Can you point us in the right direction?”

  “Sure, boss.” Her gaze swung speculatively back and forth between the two of us, picking up on the vibe now though she didn’t comment. She told Billy the room number and pointed down the hall. “Three doors down on the left.”

  “Great job tonight, Lorraine, as always.”

  “My pleasure,” she replied softly before giving a nod to the security guard and going back inside the VIP room we’d just vacated.

  “Just a minute, Thyme.” Billy reached for me curling his fingers gently around my arms before asking our chaperone to move back a couple of yards to give us privacy. “Don’t be mad about your Mamere. I invited her here to try to talk her into coming to the apartment to visit you.”

  I inhaled sharply shaking my head, leaning away from him, tears threatening.

  “In retrospect maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing to do.” He pulled me back into him and I let out a shaky breath once he held me close. “But don’t you want to see her? At least to say goodbye?” He swallowed. “As much as I love you,” sincere passion blazed from his eyes. “As much as you are my future and my hope, I’d pay almost any price for a chance to say the things that were left unsaid between Nan and me.”

  “I’m not as strong as you.” I closed my eyes leaning my forehead into his rock solid chest, breathing in his musky male scent. “I don’t want closure. I just want my life back.”

  “Oh, Thyme.” His arms wrapped tighter around me. “You are incredibly strong and resilient. But I understand.” His hands stroked my back warm through the silk. “And we’ll figure out a way to reclaim everything you’ve lost, I promise.”

  I don’t know how long we stayed like that, wrapped up in each other in a hallway, people moving past, the security guard waiting a respectful distance. It didn’t feel like long enough.

  Why couldn’t it be just the two of us, this thoughtful, kind, fierce, sensitive man? And me?

  Why did there have to be all the rest?

  Why couldn’t I have a happily ever after?

  What had I done to offend the fates?

  “I’ll go.” I bunched Billy’s shirt between my fingers and made my decision. “I’ll let chance decide. I’m wearing the mask. If she recognizes me I’ll talk to her.” She was so near. How could I not at least see her?

  “Thyme, what is this?” Billy leaned back tracing his fingers along the mask. “How does it work? Tell me that you didn’t pay some terrible price for it.”

  “It wasn’t so terrible,” I explained. “I just told a little lie. I promised Leon I’d give him your harmonica.”

  “Apollyon!” he shouted making a man turn his head as he passed. “You made a bargain with that demon?” he asked lower.

  I nodded my head.

  “Why, Thyme? Why didn’t you come to me?” His voice and his expression were grave. “I have connections already in your world. I can summon the dead. I will find a way to get back what that bastard stole from you. Then we can reverse the process.”

  Tears came to my eyes then. So long since I’d cried, or experienced real emotions in my body. I wanted to let them drop. To tell him that Morpheus and I had already talked it over. That getting my immortal ribbon back wouldn’t probably matter anymore. I’d been dead ten years. My body wherever it was had deteriorated for sure. That what once might have been only remotely possible was now no option at all.

  Looking into Billy’s hopeful eyes I told a half-truth instead. “Sometimes that works. And I’d truly like to see Apollyon deprived of it, after what he did to me.”

  “He will be.” His eyes were hard. “I guarantee you I will take everything from him before I’m through.” Noticing my concerned expression, he added, “Enough about that dirt bag.” He kissed me and I threaded my fingers into his hair. Cool and silky and thick. I held onto him a little longer.

  Indulging.

  Fortifying my courage.

  Stalling.

  Chapter 48

  Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven. - Tryon Edwards

  Billy

  Thyme was keeping something from me still. I could see it in her eyes. Feel it in her body where an insidious tension remained…because of Apollyon. The night wasn’t over though. Our lives together were just beginning. She’d learn if she hadn’t already that I never quit once I made my mind up about something.

  I brought our threaded fingers together and kissed her hand. “Ready?” I asked at the door.

  She nodded, her violet eyes wide and filled with trepidation.

  “It’ll be ok. Everything will be ok, Boo. I’m here. I’m with you.”

  “Ok,” she breathed. I settled for that sensing her ease slightly. I nodded to the security guard who pushed open the door.

  A blur of swishy crinoline streaked across a room, my niece attaching herself to my leg like a magnet. “Princess.” I let go of Thyme’s hand to twirl her around lifting her into my arms. “Thyme, this beautiful girl in the Mulan mask is Phoebe.�
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  I heard a gasp. Oh shit. I realized my error too late.

  A woman with grey hair in an elegant twist without a mask to frame her light brown eyes came toward us at a faster clip than I would’ve expected given her age.

  “Cassidy,” I called setting down my niece and gesturing to my sister. My tone and expression of utter dismay must have registered the urgency of my need because my sister immediately set her coffee cup on the table she shared with my parents and came over to take Phoebe’s hand and lead her away.

  “We’ll be back in a moment,” I explained to my waiting family and Tony’s as I curled fingers around Thyme’s arm and her grandmother’s. Steering them both out into the hall, I sent the security guard away while keeping an eye on the two women who were staring at each other, the strain of tension between them as taut as a rubber band about to snap.

  “Is that really you, Ty Boo?” Chantelle whispered peering at Thyme with eyes that were swimming in emotion.

  “Oui, Mamere. In the flesh.”

  “What kind of strange magic is this?” The woman inhaled sharply, the silver beads on her gown swishing as she made the sign of the cross over her chest. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s old, Mamere. Older than the written word. But it only lasts while I wear the mask. I’ll be gone again by the morning.”

  “No.” The denial felt like it was ripped from the very fabric of my soul. My breath lodged in my lungs. I started to reach for Thyme, but her grandmother was faster. She wrapped her arms around Thyme like she never wanted to let her go. Which was exactly what I wanted to do. Thyme returned the embrace closing her eyes while I reeled from the devastating news she had just revealed.

  “Every day I miss you,” Chantelle cried tears spilling down her lined cheeks. “Every single day is empty. Why did you not come when I tried to contact you? Why have you stayed away?”

  Thyme opened her eyes and gave me a helpless look over her grandmother’s shoulder. Tears she’d obviously been holding back earlier leaked from her own eyes and soaked into her mask.

  “She only came because I coerced her, Miss Bellerose.” I moved closer. The bittersweet reunion between them was painful to witness. “It’s dangerous for her. She’s not allowed to even talk to a mortal except on a day like today.”

  “I know all about the rules.” Light brown eyes were shuttered briefly then reopened as she began to rain quick kisses all over Thyme’s face.

  “How Mamere?” Thyme asked, her cheeks framed between her grandmother’s wrinkled hands. “How can you know that? Did my Maman tell you?”

  “Oui. She appointed me your guardian. She told me what to watch for around your twenty-first birthday. I had always hoped that maybe you had turned before you died.”

  Thyme shook her head.

  “Merde! But surely a guardian is an exception to the rule about communication. Can you find out?” She gathered Thyme’s hands and brought them to her lips. “How I’ve longed to hear your sweet voice again.”

  “I will check. I promise.” Thyme smiled slowly but sadly. “If it is possible, I will have Billy call you.”

  “Is he your beau?”

  “Oui.” She seemed to answer that question easily.

  “And what of Shane?” I saw the shadow of hurt cross Thyme’s face. It cut sharply and deeply that just the mention of his name still caused her that kind of pain. My brother had much to answer for.

  “He survived, but he is not the same. He kept important things from me. It’s over between us.”

  Oh thank the Creator.

  “Can we go back inside now, Mamere? I don’t want Billy’s family and friends to speculate.” She took her grandmother’s hand and folded it over her arm. “Now tell me all about what you’ve been doing.”

  Chapter 49

  To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever.

  - Henry Drummond

  Thyme

  “He hasn’t taken his eyes off you.”

  “I know, Mamere.” He was probably expecting me to disappear after I’d let it slip about the mask.

  “I like him. You can tell a lot about a man by how he is with his family.” I glanced over again at Billy. He had his niece beside him and was helping her color in a book. His heated gaze met mine, desire sizzling between us across the space between his table and the one I sat at with my grandmother.

  He stood to shake hands to say goodbye to Tony and his family. My Mamere squeezed my hand where it rested on the white tablecloth to get my attention.

  We’d been talking quite a while. I’d found out that she’d moved in with her youngest brother and his family. She’d found living in an apartment over his garage in Baton Rouge to be lonely and boring. She missed the shop and the rhythms of her city.

  “You’ve matured so much.” She searched my eyes. “So much knowledge. Sorrow, too. You’ve learned the world is not as simple as you once believed. There’s a lot more ambiguity in the choices people make and a lot more evil than any of us would like to admit.”

  I managed a swallow remembering the naïve girl I’d once been.

  “It seems wrong that Shane is not here. But you two were never like this.” She looked back and forth between Billy and me and then fanned her face. “Even an old woman like me can feel the heat.”

  I acknowledged that with a blush. “We are Fated.” I leaned closer. “Did my maman ever talk about that with you? Did she ever mention my father?”

  She nodded, her brow creasing with more wrinkles than ten years earlier but the wisdom in her eyes hadn’t dimmed a bit. “Your father is Bacchus, the god of wine. But he went by the name Arla at that time.”

  “Yes. He still does.” I patted her hand to continue.

  “You know this already then.”

  I nodded.

  “She came to the shop nearly every day during the time they were together. Her eyes,” she gestured toward mine, “glowed like her river does when it reflects the lights at night. The way yours are doing right now. But then something happened around the time she found out she was pregnant. Something that must have upset her greatly.”

  “What Mamere?”

  “I don’t know. She never spoke of it but it was as if something had died inside of her. She changed. She quit singing, except for you. She went away for a time and then returned. I poured the water over your head when she sang words in a language I didn’t understand to bind you to someone strong. She looked out for you in her own way. She loved you, Ty Boo. Don’t doubt that.”

  “I don’t. You’ve told me many times that she did. It’s just that for me love’s not like that. It requires action to go along with the words.” I glanced at Billy. Found him looking my way. Love was exactly like that for him. He threw himself in front of gargoyles for me. He brought Mamere here. He was always trying to do what was best for me. Even now, he was over there across the room so I would have time with her, even though we both knew he and I had so little time left together.

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

  “She made me take an oath not to until your twenty-first birthday. The one that never came.” She took my face in her soft hands and I leaned into her soft caresses. She touched the mask and her expression changed to worry. “What happened to you, fille de mon cœur?” When they found Shane’s body, I imagined the worst things.” She shivered. “Was it Leon?”

  “Oui, Mamere.”

  “I knew it. I will kill him myself.” She started to rise but I stopped her.

  “I love you. You are the mother of my heart every bit as much as I am the daughter of yours. I love that you call me that. But you must let it go. Leon is The Evil One himself. His touch is death to mortals. Promise me you’ll stay away from him. S'il vous plait,” I pleaded. I couldn’t bear the thought of him harming someone else that I loved.

  “I will take care of him I assure you.” Billy put his hands on my shoulders, his touch making my ire lower from a rapid boil to a slow
burn. I turned my head to kiss his fingers. “I’ve just spoken with Tony. He will tell no one what happened tonight. As much as I hate to separate you two, we should probably go.” He kneaded my shoulders. “Are you ready, Boo? I’d like for you to meet my family before they go.”

  “Go, Ty.” My grandmother patted my knee. “Be happy. That would please me. And I will visit the apartment. I want to talk more if it’s not too dangerous for you. I want you to be a part of my life again. No matter what you are, oui?”

  Chapter 50

  Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

  - Edgar Allan Poe

  Billy

  Even wearing simple plastic black eye masks, neither my ma in her blush colored full length gown nor my Pa in his tux failed to notice the depth of my feelings for Thyme. After all, I’d had my gaze glued to her since we came into the room. They’d heard the song I’d written about her. They had seen the positive changes in me. They had to know it was all because of her.

  Thyme charmed them effortlessly with her light French accent, her gracious manner and her soft laughter. I explained the mask with a lame joke about how homely she was without it. My mom slapped my arm. Ty rolled her eyes. My father just groaned.

  No one made mention or seemed uncomfortable with the fact that Thyme was a different color than I was. There were no prejudices in my adopted family. I was raised to judge people based on who they were not what they looked like, and had never known my parents’ actions to counteract their words. If only an example like that would be all that it would take to eliminate the prejudices of the supernatural realm. I had a feeling change there was going to come at a much higher price.

  My sister was a little more difficult with Thyme, not because of her appearance, but because I think she felt she’d be disloyal to Nan if she accepted my masked girl too quickly.

  “Where did you say you’re from again,” Cassidy asked Thyme with narrowed eyes shifting my sleepy niece to her other hip to continue her grand inquisition.