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

by Mina Carter

  “Sheriff Moon, I demand you arrest this man for destruction of property.” Lucille approached them.

  “Carter didn’t destroy any property.” Nikki denied.

  “You were there.” Lucille told her. “You saw what happened.”

  “I can assure you, that I didn’t have anything to do with what happened in your restaurant,” Carter denied. “You really should have a better pest control service.”

  “How could Carter do what happened?” Nikki asked. “He is a vampire, not a witch.”

  “Everyone knows that vampires have powers,” Lucille scoffed.

  “Vampires cannot call upon creatures to overrun a restaurant,” Carter told her.

  “Lucille, I already told you that I can’t arrest him for what happened. From what witnesses say, Ms. Shea here was the one that made the comment about roaches and things,” Sheriff Moon reminded her. “Let’s go.”

  “How are your parents going to act when they find out about him?” Lucille pointed at Carter.

  “They know that I met Carter.” Nikki admitted.

  “They were ok that their only daughter is engaging in sexual activities with a vampire?” Lucille asked. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “I haven’t told them about Carter being a vampire yet.” Nikki replied. “I didn’t want them to think that I was crazy. I want to them to meet Carter and tell them in person. Not on the phone.”

  “Is it because you are ashamed that you have gotten involved with him?”

  Nikki noticed that Carter was strangely quiet. “No, I am not ashamed of it. In fact every person should have someone like Carter in their lives. I am lucky to have found him.” She looked at Carter. “Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t regret one single thing we have done since I met you. You might be wickedly naughty, but ashamed no way on earth.”

  “Wickedly naughty?” Carter grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet. Now if we are done here, I need to take my fiancé to bed.”

  “What do you mean fiancé?” Lucille asked. “You really are like your white trash mother. Find a guy, get your hooks into him and marry him. Not caring who you hurt in the process.”

  “Why do you keep throwing my mother in my face? Why do you dislike her so badly?”

  “We would like the answer to that ourselves,” Said a voice from behind.

  Nikki was starting to think that the vibrator was going to become a permanent part of her body. “Who are you?”

  “My apologies. My name is Damon and this is my partner Malik,” he introduced them. “We were sent here to investigate the claims of those girls that were rescued. We can say without a doubt that the vampire they described was not Carter Simmons.”

  Carter held out his hand. “Damon, Malik it is very nice to see you again. May I introduce you to my mate?”

  “Nice to meet you,” Damon shook her hand.

  Nikki noticed that Malik hadn’t said a word yet. There was something about him that seemed familiar. As if she should know him somehow. “Hi. Does Malik talk?”

  “I do,” Malik shook her hand. “You feel the connection too?”

  “Yeah, I don’t get it.” Nikki said.

  “I think that is for us to discuss, once we finish up with the sheriff and Mrs. Merryweather,” Malik said.

  “Finish up?”

  “Yes, we have been here for a few days. Reports have been coming back to us that there is someone working with some rogue vampires. They seduce men and women and turn them into hybrids. They then in turn sell them to vampires as blood slaves,” Malik explained.

  “We also have reason to believe that there are some humans here that are helping the vampires,” Damon told them. “You wouldn’t know anything about that would you Mrs. Merryweather? Mr. Moon?”

  “It’s Sheriff Moon and I will not have the likes of you throwing accusations against someone as upstanding as Mrs. Merryweather,” the sheriff replied.

  “That’s interesting, because we raided a house tonight,” Malik walked up to them. “One of the humans that we took into custody, his name was Mark Merryweather and he was very talkative. Said that the house was yours, Mrs. Merryweather.”

  “I have no idea what house you are talking about,” Lucille denied.

  “Sure you don’t. You better hope that we find out that he was lying. As of right now he is the only one who will be facing The Paranormal Justice Council. You don’t want to face them,” Damon warned Lucille. “In fact, I guarantee you would rather face your human jail.”

  “I will not have you intimidate an upstanding civilian like Lucille Merryweather,” The sheriff said.

  “It isn’t intimidation if it is a promise,” Malik replied. “We have sent the information that her grandson gave us to the federal authorities. We have agreed with them to question the two of you first. Then you will be given a choice, them or us. I advise that you choose wisely.”

  “Damon? Is Randi ok?” Nikki asked.

  “Randi?” Malik answered.

  “Yeah, she is my best friend,” Nikki replied. “I was supposed to meet with her at Harvey’s last night. But then I met Carter and cancelled. She is about my height, short hair, almost pixie style cut. Thin. She is a bit of a smart ass.”

  “I know exactly who you are talking about,” Chuckled Damon. “Once we freed her, she went ballistic on Mark. She kicked his ass. It was funny watching her. We had to pull her off of him, before the cops came so she wouldn’t get in trouble. She is staying with us at the hotel as well as some of the others. You are welcome to see her.”

  “I knew something was wrong,” Nikki said. “When can I see her? Tonight?” Nikki asked. “Carter if you don’t mind?”

  “What hotel? I will take Nikki,” Carter replied. “Considering everything that you told us, I would rather be with her.”

  “Completely understandable,” Malik agreed. “I would like to speak with your mate after?”

  “It’s up to Nikki,” Carter answered.

  “I would like that,” Nikki told him. She went up and hugged Malik and Damon. “Thank you for saving my friend.”

  “Here is the address of the hotel and her room number.” Damon handed her a piece of paper. “I know she will be glad to see you. I bid you two goodnight.”

  SEVEN

  The first thing she did when she entered her house is go to the bedroom. The vibrator was driving her crazy. Thankfully Carter had turned it off, but she wanted it out. “Nikki are you ok?”

  “Physically? Yeah as soon as I get the vibrator out,” She answered. “But otherwise I am pissed. How could Lucille do that to Randi? To the others? And object to you moving in next door?”

  “I believe that is the reason she didn’t want me here,” Carter replied. “Nikki sit, there is something I need to tell you.”

  “What?” Nikki sat. “I can handle anything as long as you don’t want me as your mate anymore.”

  “I will never, ever say that. I came here to help Damon and Malik investigate what has been happening here. This investigation has been happening for a few months. I came here to keep an eye on them in case they made a break for it. But when I met you, I had to claim you. Luckily with Damon being a vamp he understood. The need to claim your mate is very strong. So I went into town and spoke with a few of the others that were here. I told them about you, luckily we were far enough into the investigation that my not being there would have hurt the case.”

  “How long have you been investigating Lucille?” Nikki sighed in relief that he still wanted her.

  “Six months,” Carter sat next to her on the bed. “We started hearing rumors about a vampire trafficking ring. They would seduce young kids into being their blood slaves. We knew in order for their plan to work they had to have humans working with them.”

  “Besides Lucille, who else is involved?”

  “Sheriff Moon which is surprising since he is a shifter. Although I don’t think Mrs. Merryweather is aware of that. Her grandson Mark. He is in cha
rge of keeping the hybrids chained and fed. Besides the kidnapping charges, he is also facing some other serious charges,” Carter replied.

  “Was mating me part of the plan?” Nikki had to know.

  “Not even close,” Carter smiled. “When I found out that the house next door was vacant, I did check the neighborhood. Unfortunately the neighborhood information about you didn’t have sexy witch.”

  “Sexy witch?” Nikki grinned. “But Carter, I am not a witch. At least I don’t think I am.”

  “You most certainly are a witch,” Carter pulled the camisole over her head and sucked a nipple. “You put a spell on me the minute I saw you.”

  Nikki shuddered, holding his head closer. “The feeling, is mutual.”

  Stretching in her bed, Nikki’s leg brushed against Carter’s. She propped her head on his chest and watched him sleep. He really was the sexiest man on the planet, and he was all hers. She brushed her lips against his and got out of bed.

  Heading for the shower she sighed as the water poured down on her. She needed to go to the store to get some food supplies, but wasn’t sure if vampires ate. Or if they ate. There were no manuals on the care and feeding of vampires. She also needed to wash her uniform and take it back to Burger Heaven, and she wanted to see Randi.

  Putting on a pair of jeans and t-shirt she went in the kitchen to fix something to eat. One look outside and she knew she wasn’t going anywhere for a while. October finally decided to make an appearance. It was pouring outside. It looked dark, gloomy, just the right kind of weather before Halloween.

  Picking up her phone she decided to try and call Randi instead. She had to hear her voice. The idea that Lucille Merryweather had something to do with what happened to Randi made her blood boil. She was about to hang up when Randi answered the phone. “Randi, I heard what happened to you.”

  “Hi Nikki,” Randi said softly. “I feel so stupid.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.” Nikki told her. “From what Damon and Malik said, you were not exactly made a hybrid willingly.”

  “Do you know what a hybrid is?” Randi said. “It is awful, thankfully Damon helped ease the ache last night, but I can’t expect him to do it all the time.”

  “He did, and I know what a hybrid is,” Nikki admitted. “In fact I will probably be one tonight. Randi, the guy I met? He is a vampire.”

  “Nikki get away from him before he does it to you. He will discard you like toilet paper on a shoe.” Randi warned. “I don’t want you to end up like me.”

  “Randi, Carter is not like that. He is my mate,” Nikki crossed her legs on the couch. “I knew the minute I saw him, that he was it for me.”

  “Oh god, you’re in love with him aren’t you?” Randi sounded worried. “Nikki, he is a monster. Damon is one too. A sexy as hell monster, but he is still one. How do you know that he isn’t going to leave you to fend for yourself? I swear when they found us yesterday I was about to try and dig my veins out of my arms. They felt like they were going to explode if I didn’t relieve some of the blood.”

  “Randi, when you meet him you will know. He is driving me to the hotel to see you tonight,” Nikki replied. “He is not like the monster that did that to you. How did you meet him anyway?”

  “We were at Harvey’s,” Randi answered. “Misty and I were sitting at the bar, waiting for our drinks when two guys approached us. They were good looking and asked us if we wanted to dance. They bought us our drinks, they were sweet when they asked us to go back to their house with them I didn’t hesitate. Now Nikki you know I don’t sleep with people I just met. But I couldn’t say no. It was obvious they wanted us to have sex with each other too. So we did. That part was actually fun. But then they joined us. The sex was incredible, but when they bit us I freaked. Then he made us drink from him. He did it three times in a row. Next morning I woke up and found myself chained to a bed. There were seven others there in the same condition. I had no idea what had happened to me, until one of the others in the room explained.”

  “Damon told me that Lucille owned the house,” Nikki told Randi.

  “Yeah, her weasel grandson Mark was there. When someone tried to escape he beat the shit out of them. He also from what I heard from the others, forced himself on some of the others,” Randi told her. “I have to confess, that when Damon rescued us, I kicked Mark’s ass.”

  “I wish I had seen it,” Nikki told her about what had happened at the restaurant.

  “Holy shit. I wish I could have seen that,” Randi said. “Carter might not be so bad after all if he did that.”

  “That’s the thing. Carter swears he didn’t do it, he said I did. He thinks that someone in my family must have been a witch,” Nikki replied.

  “Nikki, this shit is crazy.”

  “I agree. What are you going to do? You can’t stay here,” Nikki asked her.

  “Damon and Malik said something about going to Quail Springs. Said it was more receptive to our kind of people. They said they would give me a job working at Hot Nights. It’s an adult store.”

  “Just became aware of that store last night,” Nikki blushed thinking of what Carter did to her in the dressing room.

  “What did you think of the store?”

  “I liked the store. It was classy, but it needs a woman’s touch. I think to make Hot Nights stand out they need to cater to women as well as men. I did like the clothes that Carter bought me.”

  “Carter bought you clothes?” Randi asked.

  “Yeah,” Before she could say anything else, Nikki heard a knock at the door. “Randi, someone is at my door. I will see you tonight.”

  As soon as she opened the door, Nikki was ready to shut it again. “Lucille, what are you doing here? Go home.” Damn, the smell was even worse.

  “I came to talk to you. Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  “No.” Nikki said. “Tell me what you want and leave. It’s cold.” Rain started to pour even harder.

  “Don’t make this anymore difficult,” Lucille told her. “If you don’t let me in, I will force myself in with my help.”

  “Hello, Nikki.”

  “Mark, what are you doing here? I thought you were in jail. Nice eye,” it was a nice, shiny purple.

  “I got out.” Mark said. “Your friend Randi has quite a punch.”

  “What do you want?” Nikki asked. She started to get a bad feeling.

  Mark replied. “Your lover is going to be too busy mourning your death, than worrying about what we do.”

  “Mark, if you kill me it will be more than Carter you will have to worry about,” Nikki started to get nervous. Wishing something or someone would stop them. Wait it worked before when she thought of something and it happened. First Lucille choking, then the roach and mouse invasion at the Toscana. She started to think of a big wind pushing Mark and Lucille off her porch.

  “You can do it,” Said a female voice in her head.

  Nikki looked up at the sky and thought of a torrential rain storm, suddenly the skies opened and rain poured down on them. Looking at the trees she thought of hurricane like winds. The trees started to make a whistling noise. She watched as the wind swirled around Mark and Lucille and started to push them off her porch. She directed them to the tree in her front yard. Mark and Lucille screamed in horror as limbs wrapped themselves around their bodies.

  “You did it,” Said the female voice again. “Now turn off the rain and wind, but leave those two where they are. Malik will be here soon.”

  Nikki did as the voice instructed. Nikki walked over to where the tree had Lucille and Mark trapped. “Malik will be here shortly. You people are not that bright. If I were you, I would have chosen to deal with the human courts.”

  “You did very well my dear,” Said a female voice behind her.

  Nikki turned around and saw the woman from her dreams all those years ago. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Dora,” The woman answered. “I am your grandmother.”

  “I don’t have grandp
arents,” Nikki denied. “My parents told me that they didn’t have any family.”

  “It was our fault that they kept you hidden from us,” Dora said. “Neither side was happy that they met and fell in love. We did everything in our power to break them up, but it just made their bond stronger. When your mother became pregnant, she was given an ultimatum by our council. If you showed any hint of powers they were going to remove you from your parents’ custody.”

  “Why would they do that?” Nikki asked.

  “Because the Witches council did not like the fact that your father was a mortal,” Dora explained. “I tried to fight with them, but they would not listen. So they hid the fact that you had powers and banished myself and all your aunts and uncles from your life. They may have banished me from their lives, but that doesn’t mean I stopped watching over you. Every time you displayed your powers, you were scolded. By the time you were old enough to go to school you had stopped using them.”

  Nikki was stunned. “I have aunts and uncles?”

  “Lots of them. Wait until you meet them,” Dora laughed. “They are a colorful bunch. We all knew that you had powers, but we never let the council know. A child unless they are being physically or emotionally abused, belongs with his or her parents. I might not have liked your father but he never would harm a hair on your head. Which is why I was glad they kept Lucille from finding out you had powers.”

  “Why?” Nikki looked at the woman.

  “Because she is your other grandmother,” Dora revealed. “She had a hairy fit when she found out that your father had married Ava. She did everything she could to break them up. But like with us, every attempt made their bond stronger. When your mother found out she was pregnant, they went into seclusion. Lucille here made several attempts to try to prevent you from being born.”

  “My last name is Shea, not Merryweather,” Nikki started to feel sick. She was related to Lucille? Maybe there was a mistake. Maybe she was still sleeping and this is a nightmare?

  “Because your father changed his name when he married your mother,” Dora explained. “Like I said, neither side was happy. We may have changed your father into a frog or a horse, but we never tried to physically harm him. The same cannot be said for Lucille. Lucille tried many times to harm my daughter. Her attacks escalated when it became known that she was pregnant with you.”