by Michele Hauf
“She bit a witch when she was starving for blood. And you know that’s when the Great Protection Spell had rendered all witches’ blood poisonous to vampires. I watched her die. It took less than five minutes for the blood to eat her up from the inside out.”
Yeah, that had been the cool thing about being a witch before the spell had been broken early in the twenty-first century. A witch need not fear a vampire after centuries of persecution. The Great Protection Spell had been conjured to make all the blood in all the witches lethal to vampires. One bite and bye-bye vampire.
Tuesday had experienced a few occasions when a particularly vicious vampire had thought he was going to take what he wanted from her. No regrets whatsoever.
“She didn’t know it was a witch she was biting?” she asked.
“No. And neither did I. We were out partying and she rushed ahead to feed. She was an innocent. And rationally, I know the witch was also innocent of the crime of murder. That witch had not asked to be bitten by a blood-hungry vampire. But at the time I didn’t see it that way.”
“You murdered the witch?”
He nodded. “I was in a rage. My old warring instincts emerged. I didn’t kill her. I...couldn’t.”
“Of course not. If you would have made her bleed on you...”
“I’m not reckless with lives, Tuesday. You have to know that. But I did do some damage. Of which, I regret.”
He must have been a force on the battlegrounds. How times had changed. Not always for the best, but the end of the Great Protection Spell had helped to ease tensions between vamps and witches.
“The past haunts us ever and always,” she offered.
“That it does. But now you know about my witch thing.”
“Yeah, but I’m not that witch, Ethan. And vampires have no reason to fear our species any longer. So for as much as I can sympathize with you losing someone you loved? You gotta get over it, vampire. Live in the moment, remember?”
“Thanks for reminding me.” And then he smiled at her. “And I have gotten over it, apparently so much so that I’ve drunk from a witch twice within the last twenty-four hours.”
Tuesday felt as if the something that had started between them had sunk deeply into her marrow. There would be no walking away from this man after they had dealt with the demon. And how to accept that her staying in his life, possibly allowing him to consider falling in love, could only mean their end?
“You can tell me about all your lovers sometime,” she said. “If you want to. I’d like to hear about the women who captured your heart. Even if only for a day, week, month or year.”
“Really? You didn’t want to hear about Anyx.”
“That was...” Not all that different. The man had lovers and a wife over the centuries. Wasn’t as if she’d been celibate. Time to drop the jealousy. “We can share. But let’s take it slow, yeah?”
“Agreed. Past lovers don’t need to be doled out all at once. And they are the past.”
“I can agree with that. Been there, don’t need to look back.”
“But you still owe me a couple lover stories. Which I will collect on later. Right now, I believe that is the familiar’s building.” Ethan stopped across the street from a nondescript four-story building fronted by stone mascarons and weather-stained pink granite. “I’m never sure how to go about approaching a familiar,” he said. “Do I call out ‘Here, kitty kitty’?”
“That would be obnoxious,” a man’s voice said from behind Tuesday and Ethan.
They both turned to find a short man with tousled brown-and-gold hair, green eyes and a confident stance lift a questioning eyebrow.
* * *
The familiar bowed to Tuesday, then took her hand and kissed the back of it. Tuesday was not impressed. She could recognize a charmer from a mile away.
“Ethan Pierce,” the man said as he shook the vampire’s hand. “It’s been a few years, yes? How’s bites?”
“The usual. I need your help, Thomas. Can we go up and talk?” He gestured toward the building.
“No.” Thomas assessed Tuesday carefully, his green eyes narrowing, most likely reading her for powers or skills. Familiars had a thing with witches and could read them fairly well. “I’d prefer to stay outside. Was just heading out for a scamper anyway. Whatever you’ve got to offer me, make it quick.”
Ethan said, “I need a familiar to help summon a demon.”
“Nope.” Thomas shook his head adamantly. “No can do. I don’t do that kind of subservient shit. No witch is going to use me to channel a demon to this realm.”
“The demon is already here. In Paris,” Ethan explained. “We need to summon him into captivity.”
Thomas quirked an eyebrow. “Why don’t you go after him? Don’t you head a troop of wild and crazy demon hunters?”
“We don’t hunt demons. Exactly. Besides, we tried that.”
“And failed? And why are you, the director of Acquisitions, asking me about this? Are you doing fieldwork now, Pierce?”
“I am. This is an important case. I don’t want to cock it up.”
Tuesday held back from mentioning that he’d already managed to do just that. She’d give the man a break. He was particularly cute, and she was still riding all the warm feelies after that quickie in the alley.
“You do have a partner that works with you, yes?” Ethan asked.
Thomas lifted his shoulders in affront. “Whether or not I do is none of your business. I won’t do it. I do have my dignity. Good day to the two of you.”
The familiar turned and strolled away, shoving his hands in the pockets of a summery white linen jacket.
Ethan called after him, “It pays!”
Thomas performed an agile turn—as graceful as a feline—and walked back up to them. “How much?”
Ethan shrugged. “How much do you charge?”
“A hundred thousand,” Thomas said without pause.
Curious to see how the man who had explained to her that he didn’t have a handle on the money would play this one, Tuesday listened avidly.
“Can’t do that,” Ethan said.
“Fifty grand.”
Ethan winced.
“Oh, come on! What can you give me, man?”
“Ten,” Ethan said.
Thomas turned and stalked away from them, but he flung out his arms and called without looking back, “Fine!”
“I’ll need you after dark. Tomorrow!” Ethan called after him. “At headquarters. Ready to go.”
Thomas delivered a thumbs-up over his shoulder and kept on walking.
“Ten grand?” Tuesday asked.
“His job isn’t that complicated. Having sex until he’s sated?” Ethan blew out a breath.
“Yeah, but it is dangerous. When the demon comes through, the familiar will shift to cat form and be left vulnerable. Not to mention whomever he works with will be in danger.” Meaning, the person he’d be having sex with in order to become sated.
Familiars were conduits for demons to bridge into this realm. A witch could summon a demon via a familiar by invoking a spell at the point in which the familiar was sexually sated and open to receive that demon into this realm. Bridging a demon already in the same realm? Should be a piece of cake.
“You want me to invoke the spell?” Tuesday asked as she joined Ethan’s side and they walked again. “I’ve conjured a demon or two in my day.”
“Yes, and I’ve met one of them,” he replied. “He almost brought down a four-story building on our heads. No, I’ll have Certainly Jones do it. I don’t want you anywhere near when the demon Gazariel is summoned.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Tuesday, I thought you said he’d rip out your heart if he saw you again. I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“I appreciate that, but I think you’ll need me to b
e there. My sigil will focus CJ’s and the familiar’s magic and abbreviate the process. The familiar might not even have to go through all his...gyrations, to achieve bridging mode.”
“You have something against watching a familiar have sex?”
“Do you want to watch? Kinky. The things I’m learning about you.”
Ethan grabbed her and kissed her. Hard. Claiming. Just long enough to make her glad for his need to silence her in such a manner.
“I’d rather not watch, if truth be told,” he offered. “Fine. I’ll talk to CJ about the possibility of having you close. But I need you to be protected. If we can’t ensure your safety, you’re out.”
“My, how your attitude toward me has altered in but a few days. Is it my dazzling personality? Or merely that you like fucking me?”
“Both.” The wink was the killer move to seal Tuesday’s crazy fall into something she wasn’t about to name. No, never. “Now come on,” he said. “We’ve a little over twenty-four hours until tomorrow night. I’m going to call CJ and get the ball rolling, then set up things to ensure the reckoner is on-site as well. After that, we’ll have a little time to spare.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Again? You just ate a monstrous crepe stuffed with an entire banana and enough chocolate to feed a classroom.”
“Are you judging my eating habits?”
He laughed. “Not at all. Let me make the phone calls, then I’ll take you to a place on the island. I’ve always wanted to taste their food.”
Chapter 18
The meal featured tiny jewels of savory-flavored gelatin and a salad that would have starved a baby bunny. Tuesday had been forced to order two desserts. When the waiter delivered the cherry cake laced with rum he winked at Ethan. But Ethan’s attention remained on Tuesday as she teased her fork at the decadent, moist cake.
They’d talked about familiars and what a weird life that must be. To be able to shift to such a small animal, such as a cat, bird, insect, or snakes and worms, and then to transform back to a human shape. Had to fuck with the insides and internal organs, yeah? The paranormal realm was truly wondrous.
The first bite of the cake made up for the pitiful meal. Lush, rum-soaked cherries burst on Tuesday’s tongue, and she moaned in appreciation, savoring the wicked dark flavor.
Ethan leaned forward, his interest suddenly intent. “That good, eh?”
“You want a taste?”
“I think I’d rather experience it through you.”
“I don’t think the mutual-sexual-vibes thing works with food. On the other hand...”
She forked in another bite and this time closed her eyes to really enjoy and experience the flavors. Sweet and tart, dense and creamy. Kind of how it felt when Ethan ran his tongue over her swollen, wet pussy. The man was always intent on her pleasure. Just thinking about it, combined with the cherries and cake, made her nipples tighten.
Ethan groaned.
She opened one eye to see the vampire silently pleading with her from across the table. She slid her hand over the table and clasped fingers with him. The touch shivered over her skin.
“I felt that,” he said. “The way you felt it. Really? That good?”
“I’m using my imagination, and thinking about you...with your head between my legs.” She dipped into the cherry syrup and touched the fork to her lips, licking it off with a slow draw of her tongue.
Ethan sucked in his lower lip and eased his free hand down to his lap. Tuesday felt the rub of his palm across his cock as a visceral hum in her loins. The man’s sexual energy was focused and targeted to his core. Acknowledging it started an aching throb at her clitoris. She stabbed another syrupy cherry onto the fork and this time held it between her lips and slowly crushed it. Cherry juice ran down her chin.
“I’d crawl under the table right now if there weren’t people sitting but five feet from us. But can you feel this?” Ethan’s hand under the table must have squeezed his erection because Tuesday reacted with a gasp.
“Sweet bloody cherries, yes. You’re so hard, vampire.”
A sudden throat clearing beside them darted Tuesday’s attention to the side. The man sitting at a table by himself, a small cup of espresso steaming before him, gave her a snide look down his nose.
The voyeur did not approve?
Tuesday pulled up Ethan’s hand to trace the cherry juice on her chin. He then dipped that finger into her mouth and she sucked it. With a tender bite to the tip of his finger and a lash of her tongue, she was gifted with the exact right pressure to her clit that set her off. A deep and concentrated orgasm clasped her for a few seconds. Enough to lift her gasp to a vocal cry of “Oh!”
For his part, Ethan pulled his hand from her mouth and muffled his groan behind a napkin.
Tuesday leaned forward, panting and squeezing her thighs together to milk one last shock of vibrant sensation from the orgasm. Yes, right there. She bowed her head and said in a tight whisper, “That was so fucking good.”
“I am suddenly a fan of rum-soaked cherries.” He clasped her hand and they stood to leave. Ethan gave the voyeur a smirk.
And Tuesday said as they passed him, “Let them eat cake.”
* * *
Hand in hand, they walked to Acquisitions headquarters, and entered through a nondescript door in an alleyway. The same door that Tuesday had walked out of days earlier and then had been bound to Ethan. Now they were bound in a different manner, and because of the choices they’d made to do so.
A dark hallway led to an elevator, which rose four flights. It was near midnight so the building was mostly quiet, though Ethan mentioned that there were always people in some department doing something at all hours of the day.
A small reception area let in moonlight across the single desk and curved walls. Tuesday stepped behind Ethan as he waited before a steel platform and some kind of electronic reading device that resembled the scanner a person walks through at the airport. He waited for green LEDs to blink, then grabbed her and rushed across the platform.
“You don’t have access,” he said as he punched in a digital code on a massive wood door before them. “But that sneaky move worked better than I expected.”
“You’ve never snuck a girlfriend into your office before?”
“You’re the first,” he said as he opened the door and she walked through.
Though she had been in here briefly before, she’d not taken the time to look around because she’d been seriously in need of a bathroom break and had also been focusing on the sigil burning through the shackle rope Certainly Jones had placed on her.
Eerily quiet, and barely lit by pale moonlight, the dark room smelled like cedar. Tuesday slipped off her coat and let it drop to the floor as she walked up to the desk. Dim lighting blinked on and highlighted the hexagon structure of the room. An excellent shape for creating magic. The walls were solid, dark-stained wood, and the windows had a view of the city lights, yet she wouldn’t be able to pinpoint a monument or tourist attraction for the life of her.
“A vampire’s retreat,” she decided. “Cool, calm and dark.”
“I spend a lot of time behind this desk. Might as well make it comfortable.”
“Doesn’t look very comfy to me.” She swung around the desk and sat on his chair, which—“Oh, mercy, I change that statement. Is this the most comfortable chair on the planet?” She wiggled on what felt like a living material that conformed to her shape and curves and...was that a sudden warmth? “Is it one of those massage chairs? Tell me it is, because I am so in to that.”
Ethan reached under the desk and the chair suddenly began to vibrate and undulate.
“Oh, fuck yeah.” She closed her eyes and put up her feet on the edge of the desktop. “Don’t mind me. I’ll fly to seventh heaven while you’re doing whatever it is you have to do.”
Standing beside
the chair, Ethan opened the laptop on the desk and began clacking away on the keys. “Just want to make sure the holding room is cleared for tomorrow night. And that no unnecessary personnel are on sight. I’ve decided we’re going to summon the demon with the familiar directly here to headquarters. It will work if we make the proper preparations. Looks like CJ is the only one scheduled to be in the building, save the tech guys, but they’re on the first floor. I’m bringing in Cinder on this one. He’s IT. He’ll grant us access and make sure all wards are down.”
“Mmm...” Tuesday let her head drift off the back of the chair and twisted to sit sideways, catching a particularly deep kneading motion at the base of her spine. “This chair could probably fuck me if I found the right position.”
Ethan laughed. “You’re a lot easier than I’d initially thought.”
“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’ve never gotten off on the vibrations from this fabulous thing?”
“Can’t say that I have. Though, what is it with you women and vibrations?”
“Hit us in the right spot and we will sing, baby, sing. You don’t feel it?”
He frowned then. “No, I actually don’t.” Was that worry in his eyes? “Huh. You think our bond is wearing thin?”
“It’s possible. I would guess it will last so long as my blood served you. But we can always refresh it.” She slid a hand up Ethan’s leg, aiming for the front, where his dark jeans did not conceal the erection. “Maybe I can make you hum a little tune, eh?”
“I won’t stop you from trying. I have to verify the security locks are activated in a few sectors for tomorrow night...”
She squeezed his erection through the rough fabric and then unzipped him. The man always went commando and his penis jutted out as the zipper teeth separated. She wrapped a firm hand around the stick shift and began to drive, even while his attention was focused on the laptop screen. But he did move his hips to give her better access, and soon enough he closed the laptop and leaned against the desk.
