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

by Mina Carter

  She knew she wanted his bite, more than anything. She grabbed her his head and placed it on her neck. “Do it.”

  Carter kissed her again, his hand going between their bodies and rubbed her clit. She screamed his name so loud she would be surprised if she would have any voice left. Her juices bathed his hard shaft. She gasped and her pussy muscles clamped around his cock as he sank his fangs into her neck and drank.

  Holy shit, was the last thing she remembered. She sank into the pillow and felt herself floating. It was the most erotic feeling she ever experienced. He held her hips tight as he poured his come inside of her. His fangs slipped out of her flesh, his tongue closing the wound.

  She watched as he scratched a spot above the nipple on his chest, bringing her face to the wound. Instinctively knowing what he wanted, she closed her lips over it and drank. The warmth of his blood filled her veins, her fingers dug into his biceps as she felt another orgasm rip through her. Her pussy muscles milked his cock. The taste of his blood was sweeter than candy, the more she drank the more she craved. He gently moved her face from his chest and kissed her.

  “You are mine,” Carter started to move. The bed hit the wall, the mattress squeaked in protest as he pushed his cock as deep as he could inside her. Bending his head he swallowed a breast between his lips and sucked, scraping her nipple with his fangs without breaking the skin.

  She didn’t think it would be possible to have another orgasm, but she was wrong. She screamed his name at the same time he shouted hers. He came deep inside her. His come filling her pussy absorbing his liquid as if it was a sponge. Her pussy seemed to absorb Carter’s seed into her walls, branding her pussy as his from the inside.

  Slowly separating his body from hers, she murmured in protest. “Stay.”

  “I will crush you.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I do,” he brushed her lips with his. “Are you ok?”

  “When can we do it again?” Sitting up she touched the side of her neck. “You really did bite me.”

  “Yes, and I will bite you again and again,” Carter brushed the hair from her eyes.

  “What will happen to me?” Nikki asked.

  “You will be stronger, you won’t be as susceptible to diseases,” Carter explained. “The older you get the more sensitive to the sun you will become. Sunlight does not kill us, but it is very painful. You will also need to be fed from.”

  “Fed from?”

  “If a hybrid is not fed from, your body will produce more blood than it needs and if you are not fed it will become painful. You will feel as if your veins will explode,” Carter explained. “That happens to hybrids if they are turned and left to their own devices. That won’t happen to you, because I will be with you.”

  “Does that happen often?”

  “More than we would like,” Carter admitted. “There are vampires that like to prey on people, much like humans. They like to turn people into hybrids and then sell them to the vampire crowd. It’s a huge problem that we have been dealing with for years.”

  “That’s terrible. For the record, if you were to do that to me I just might find you and cut your balls off with a nail file,” Nikki threatened. “So am I what did you call it a hybrid now?”

  “No. You will become one after you drink from me the third time,” Carter explained. “Your life as a vampire will begin when your natural life ends.”

  “Will we stop sharing blood after the third time?” Nikki asked.

  “No. The more blood we share, the stronger our bond. I have heard that some mates can hear each other’s thoughts.” Carter hand moved back between her thighs.

  “What if you change your mind?” Nikki had to know. “What if you find someone else?”

  “Not going to happen.” He rolled her on her back. “Enough talking.” He slid back into her wet heat and started to move.

  THREE

  Nikki struggled to wake up. She was afraid if she woke up that he would be gone. That somehow the night before had been a dream. That her new neighbor was not only hot, but a vampire who claimed that she was his mate.

  Her room was pitch black, even though it was seven in the morning. With her schedule never being the same, she had installed darkening shades, blinds and drapes to keep the light out when she worked late at night. Considering what Carter told her, she may be requesting the night shift more often.

  Getting out of bed she headed to the shower. She hurt in places she hadn’t in a very long time. She lost count on how many times Carter fucked her the previous night. She really didn’t want to go into work today. She wanted to stay home and get back in bed with Carter. Putting on her uniform she headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat before heading out the door.

  “Morning Nikki. Have you heard from Randi?” Her boss Kurt asked.

  Nikki answered. “I haven’t spoken to her since last night. She said something about going to Harvey’s.”

  “Well I suggest you call her before you start and tell her to get her butt in here,” Kurt told her. “I don’t tolerate no shows.”

  “Ok,” Nikki was worried about Randi. It was not like her to not show up for work. Calling Randi on her cell, she started to get even more worried when her voicemail came on. “I got her voicemail and left her a message. I will stop by after work.”

  “You do that,” Kurt replied. “She better have a good excuse.”

  Nikki silently rolled her eyes. She hated this job but it paid the bills. She hated going home smelling like burgers and people talking to her like she was stupid. She took the cash drawer Kurt handed her and went to the register.

  Time flew by quickly, lunch time bringing in a steady stream of customers. “Nikki take your break,” Kurt ordered.

  Sighing in relief, she handed the last order to her customer, as she headed to the back she heard Lucille Merryweather. “I would like to place an order.”

  Not even a please or thank you, Nikki thought to herself. “I’m sorry Mrs. Merryweather but I am closed,” she pointed to her coworkers on either side of her. “They are open and no one is waiting.

  “I want you to wait on me.”

  “What can I get for you?” Nikki gave into the inevitable. If she told Lucille no, than she will be screaming for Kurt and Nikki would have to wait on her anyway. What was that smell? Something smelled weird.

  “I want a Big Chuck, large fries and a milk shake,” Lucille said. “I want everything fresh.”

  Of course you do. Nick thought. “It will take a few minutes,” She handed Lucille a number. “Someone will bring it out to you.”

  “I want you to bring it out to me,” Lucille ordered.

  “Nikki? I thought I told you to go on break,” Kurt came up to her.

  “I was about to when Mrs. Merryweather came up and insisted I wait on her,” Nikki explained. “She wants everything made fresh too.”

  “Well as soon as you are done go on break,” Kurt said.

  I hope she chokes. Nicki said. “Go have a seat and I will bring it to you,” Lucille was nasty to most of the people in town, but for reasons why Nikki could never understand she was even nastier to her.

  “How you could let that monster in your house last night is beyond me,” Lucille said to her.

  “Monster? No, no monsters,” Nicki had a feeling she was talking about Carter. Just thinking of him and everything they did last night had pulse racing. “Oh wait, there was one. You.”

  “Are you calling me a monster?” Lucille huffed. “How dare you. I am not a monster. That thing that moved into the house next door to you. He is the monster.”

  “Carter Simmons is not a monster, you are, but Carter not even close.” Oh shit. If she didn’t find her filter, she would be walking out of the restaurant unemployed.

  “What did you say?” Lucille’s face started to turn red.

  Should she retract her statement? No, why should she. If she got fired it would be worth it. “I said that he wasn’t a monster. He is smart, fun to talk
to and is anything but a monster.”

  “You called her a monster,” Said a customer standing next to them. “Personally I agree.”

  “I’m sorry,” not really but she had to pretend. “I will bring your food out to you.”

  “I want to speak to your manager,” Lucille told her. “No one speaks to me that way.”

  “Maybe they should,” Nikki shot back. She was tired of pussyfooting with this woman. She also knew that as soon as Kurt came up she would be minus a job.

  “What’s going on?” Kurt came back up.

  “This person,” Lucille pointed at Nikki. “Just insulted me. I want her fired.”

  “Mrs. Merryweather, I am sure Nikki didn’t mean it,” Kurt said to her. “Now apologize.”

  “I did, she didn’t accept it,” Nikki replied. “She can be rude and nasty to everyone, no one says a word.”

  “That’s it Nikki get your things,” Kurt told her.

  Nikki knew she should have been mortified that she was just fired. But the truth was that she felt some sort of sick relief that she no longer had to work there. She saw Lucille was sitting at the table eating her burger. ‘I hope you choke.’ She thought as she went to the back to get her purse.

  “She’s choking. Get her some water.”

  Nikki turned her head and saw Lucille, her face turning purple. She couldn’t move. She watched a customer get up and gave her the Heimlich, a chunk of meat flew out and hit Kurt in the face. Karma really did work in mysterious ways.

  She started to leave when she ran into a neighbor that lived a few houses down from hers. “Hey Nikki? The house next door to you is on fire.”

  “Carter,” she said before running out of the restaurant. Nikki felt sick. Please let him still be where she had left him. Sleeping in her bed. She just found him, she will be damned if she lost him. .

  “Miss you can’t go down there,” a cop warned her.

  “Try and stop me. My house is the one next door.”

  “Your house didn’t suffer any damage. The other house? It’s a total loss. Right now we have men searching but as far as we can tell no one was in the house,” the cop informed her.

  “Something wrong, Officer?”

  Nikki sighed in relief at the news that no one was in Carter’s house.

  “Yeah, she said she lives next door to the one that caught on fire. I told her she couldn’t go there yet.”

  “The men are packing up and leaving now,” The fireman smiled at her. “I don’t see why she can’t go back to her house now.”

  She ran into her house and ran straight for her bedroom. She sighed in relief, Carter was still sleeping in her bed. She sat on the bed and touched him, making sure he was really there.

  She stripped off her clothes and slid under the covers. Her head on his chest, she could hear his heart. It wasn’t beating as loud as a human heart, but it still was beating. How can someone that she didn’t know existed twenty four hours ago, mean that much to her?

  She had no idea how long she laid there before getting up. Getting something to eat, she needed to call her parents and tell them about the fire.

  She also needed to call Randi. She had to admit she was worried. Randi wouldn’t have missed work. She dialed Randi’s number and again reached her voicemail. If she didn’t hear from Randi by the time Carter got up she would ask him if he would take her over to Randi’s apartment.

  Before she could call her mom, her phone rang. She smiled when she saw it was her mother calling her. “Hi mom.”

  “Hi, I wasn’t sure whether you were home from work or not,” her mother Ava Shea said.

  “I got fired.”

  “Fired? Why?” Her mother asked.

  Nikki explained about what happened at the restaurant. “Mom, I met someone.”

  “A man? Do tell,” Ava asked.

  “His name is Carter Simmons. He moved into the house next door,” Nikki told her.

  “There is something else that you are not telling me,” Her mother said.

  “How did you know?” Nikki wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her mother that she was in love with a vampire.

  “I sense it in your voice,” Ava answered. “What else has happened?”

  “Someone burned his house down while I was at work,” Nikki replied.

  “Is he hurt?”

  “No he is fine. He spent the night here,” Nikki blushed.

  “Didn’t you say you just met him?” her mom asked.

  “Yeah, I can’t explain it though. The minute I met him, I knew he was it,” Nikki tried not to sound guilty.

  “Honey, I completely understand. I was exactly the same way when I met your father,” Ava reminded her. Nikki always loved hearing how her parents met in Vegas. Her father worked in advertisement and had been there to meet with one of the owners of the casino. Her mother worked as a cashier behind the cage at the same casino. They have been together ever since. “Nikki, your father wants to talk to you.”

  Oh great, now dad. She loved her dad, but he was always afraid of what others would think. She always wondered how her mother didn’t want to strangle him at times. “Hi, Dad.”

  “Nikki, I just heard what your mother said,” her father Larry said. “You just met the man. What if he is some sort of psycho serial killer?”

  “Dad, Carter is not a serial killer,” Nikki sighed. Her father was a great guy, but didn’t accept change easily.

  “I also want you to keep your distance from Lucille Merryweather,” Larry warned. “That woman is trouble with a capital T.”

  “Believe me dad, I want to stay away from her as much as possible. There is something about her when she is near that makes me sick to my stomach,” Nikki replied.

  “Now about this Carter fellow. I don’t want you heading to Vegas and getting married to someone you just met,” Larry said.

  “Dad, we haven’t even said the M-word. I haven’t dated anyone in a very long time. Granted things moved quickly last night, but I have never been surer of anything in my life. Didn’t you two always say that the minute the two of you met, you knew it was forever?”

  “Yes we did. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have our share of problems. I don’t regret marrying your mom, but there are times I wish that I had taken the time to know her better,” Larry replied.

  “Dad, I appreciate the advice, I will think about what you said,” Nikki assured him. “I am going to hang up now. I just wanted to let you know that the house was ok, after the fire. Give Mom a kiss for me.”

  Putting her phone in her pocket, she walked over to Carter’s house. The smell of the smoke made her stomach roll. “I wouldn’t go in there.”

  Nikki turned and saw two men with clipboards and badges. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to. Are you two actually going to investigate the fire?”

  “You sound surprised,” The man with the Spongebob tie said.

  “Yeah. Considering the way Lucille Merryweather acted when she found out he moved in here,” Nikki explained. “She came over with some wild tale that he was a vampire, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one of her people set fire to it.”

  “Yeah, she and the sheriff told everyone that would listen that Mr. Simmons was a vampire and needed to be rid of before he drains us all and makes us zombies or something,” the Orange tie guy replied. “Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s behind if he was a vampire.”

  “It’s a shame. I hope he wasn’t in there when it happened. There were no remains found, but a lot of people think he just turned to ash from the fire.” Spongebob tie said.

  Nikki wasn’t sure if she should tell them or not that he was in her bed. “Do you have any idea what started the fire?”

  “Not yet. It was set deliberately I can tell you that much,” Orange tie said.

  “I’m just grateful that the fire didn’t spread to my house.” Nikki told them.

  “Yeah, there was something strange about that too.”

  “What do you mean?” Nikki asked.

&n
bsp; “A couple of the guys that fought the fire said that sparks did fly towards your house but they bounced back,” Orange tie said.

  “That is weird,” Nikki wondered if maybe somehow Carter sensed was happening and deflected the flames.

  “One guy said he could have sworn he saw a red haired lady in that tree,” the guy pointed to the tree in her backyard. “Said she had on this long flowing gown and bright red hair. But then he looked again and she was gone. We think he probably inhaled too much smoke.” Spongebob tie said.

  “That is weird.” Something about the woman that they described struck a chord in Nikki. “I will let you guys get back to your to your investigation.

  Walking in her house she kept thinking of the woman that they described. It resembled the woman that Nikki used to dream about when she was little. She always came after she went to bed at night and sang her a song before going to sleep or read her a bedtime story.

  She had not seen or heard her since she was seven years old. It was right after she told her parents about the lady from her dream. She found herself missing her at times.

  Walking back to her house Nikki saw that it was almost time for Carter to get up. Her pulse quickened thinking of everything they did last night. Who knew that vampires would be so dominant in bed? And that she would love every single minute of it?

  She couldn’t help but wonder how to tell him that his house was on fire. Even though he hadn’t lived there long, he still lost everything. The only clothes that he had were the ones that were on her bedroom floor. Although a naked Carter would not exactly be a hardship on the eyes.

  Her heart flipped when Carter walked out of the bedroom. Damn, he was hot. Maybe she should dress him in a burlap bag or something? He was hers and she didn’t want any women drooling over him. Walking over to her he kissed her. “How are you feeling after last night?”

  “No ill effects,” She kissed him back. Her arms going around his neck. “When can we do it again?”