DARK ANGEL'S SEDUCTION

by I. T. Lucas

  That first time in the club, Shawn had been convinced that the guy was a homo. What man let his hair grow down to his ass? Only one who wanted that ass fucked, that’s who.

  The fucker sure was pretty enough for even some straight guys to give it to him. Not Shawn, his dick would never touch some guy’s hairy ass, not even for revenge.

  Well, maybe in vengeance. But that would be the only reason.

  Still, if the asswipe was banging Callie, he was either straight or went both ways.

  Shawn glanced at the clock on the wall, one of the cheap junky knickknacks Callie used to buy at the discount store to hang over the holes he’d made in the walls. He should get a trash bag and get rid of all that junk, then hire someone to patch up the walls. Why live as if he were poor when he was making so much money?

  It was ten after eight at night, a perfect time to visit a certain club, find the girly motherfucker, and get him to confess.

  The thing was, together with the other recollections, Shawn also remembered how fucking strong the bastard was. He’d lifted Shawn’s two hundred and twenty pounds as if it was nothing.

  What a freak.

  But even the strongest freak would sing with a bullet in his gut, or even better, his knees, but those were harder to hit. The gut was a bigger target, one Shawn couldn’t miss.

  Fuck, his head was pounding with the mother of all hangovers, and he needed to piss. Otherwise, he would have been in his car already. But acting without a plan and a sluggish brain was stupid.

  A long cold shower and five Advils later, he was good to go.

  Shawn still wasn’t clear on what exactly he was going to do once he got there, except scare the crap out of the motherfucker and get him to spill where Callie was hiding.

  Armed with his two Colt Cobras, Shawn got into the car and programmed the nightclub’s address into its GPS.

  Shawn had been practicing with the twin beauties for years, even before his father had gifted them to him to start his own vintage gun collection. He had kept them in perfect working condition just as his father had taught him.

  Most often he’d practiced in a shooting range, but sometimes he’d ventured out into the mountains. Hunting wasn’t allowed just anyplace, so he’d bought silencers to avoid getting caught. He never took his kills home, leaving the carcasses to be eaten by other predators.

  As he stashed the guns in the glove compartment, Shawn envisioned two possible scenarios for their use.

  One was to threaten the scumbag screwing his wife, watch him as he pissed himself in fear, and get him to confess Callie’s whereabouts. The other was to drive him out to the mountains, kill him, and leave his carcass for the wild animals to dispose of, the same way Shawn had done with the critters he’d killed.

  Or both.

  CHAPTER 54: CALLIE

  “What’s up, Callie?” Donnie asked as she joined him outside on her break. “I miss our walks.”

  She leaned into him, putting her head on his bicep. “Me too. But I like having a car and driving myself places. You can’t live in Los Angeles without a car.”

  “That’s true.” Donnie pulled out a cigarette and offered her one, even though she always declined.

  Callie eyed the pack. “You know what? I’ll give it another try. I feel adventurous lately.” She took the Marlboro Light, waiting for Donnie to light it up for her.

  “Be careful. Don’t inhale too much.”

  She chuckled. “I won’t. I learned my lesson.”

  It still tasted awful, but she decided to give it a chance. Some things took getting used to before they felt good. Even amazing.

  Callie blushed. Like the flogger. It had been such a surprise that a scary-looking instrument like that with even a scarier name could be used for pleasure. A lot of pleasure. It wasn’t harmless. If Brundar had applied more force, she would have no doubt felt the sting despite how soft those suede strips were.

  Maybe someday she’d be brave enough to try. A little pain enhanced the pleasure. But as she was discovering, it sometimes worked for her and sometimes didn’t. She needed to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it.

  “You’re getting the hang of it,” Donnie commented.

  Lost in thought, she’d smoked one-third of the cigarette. “I’m getting lightheaded. I think that’s enough for my virgin voyage.”

  Stifling a chuckle, Donnie shook his head as he took the cigarette from her. “You say the damnedest things, Callie. I have to bite my cheek every time.”

  She waved a hand. “Feel free to say whatever is on your mind. I’m not a delicate flower.”

  “Maybe not, but your boyfriend may not approve.”

  “He is not here.” It didn’t escape Callie’s notice that it was the first time she hadn’t denied Brundar was her boyfriend. Maybe because yesterday had been the first time he’d acted like one. He’d even texted her today, twice. Once to tell her he had a busy day and wouldn’t be able to come over, which was a shame since he also had a rotation tonight. The second time he’d texted her just to ask how she was doing and promised to sneak into her bed when he was done with his rotation in the morning.

  Callie was soaring on a happy cloud.

  “That is true. But you never know what he can hear. I swear the dude has bat hearing.”

  She’d noticed that. Sometimes she would mumble something in the kitchen, and he would answer her from the living room as if she was right next to him. Just one more oddity to add to the mystery that was Brundar.

  But who was counting?

  Donnie pulled out several folded pages from the inner pocket of his jacket. “I finally came up with an idea for a comic strip starring Fran. She is an investigative reporter, looking for vampires. I only have a few pages done. What do you think?” Moving closer to the light, he held up the first page.

  “It’s Fran all right. Just better looking. It’s obvious that you’re smitten with her. But that’s good. What girl doesn’t like to be drawn as a gorgeous bombshell?”

  “I was following your advice. But I didn’t need to enhance much. She is already beautiful.” Donnie’s smile was wistful.

  Leaning closer, Callie tried to read the tight writing enclosed in the bubbles, when a shadow darted behind Donnie.

  Was someone trying to sneak into the club behind the bouncer’s back?

  She put her hand on his arm to alert him when she heard a heavy thud.

  As Donnie groaned and started crumbling down to the sidewalk, her ponytail got yanked from behind, and she stumbled.

  It was all happening so fast.

  The moment Callie opened her mouth to scream, a meaty fist connected with her jaw, then something rigid hit the back of her head, and it was lights out.

  CHAPTER 55: BRUNDAR

  “Can you do me a favor?” The words tasted like sawdust in Brundar’s mouth. He hated asking for anything, favors in particular.

  Anandur fought to stifle a smirk and lost. “What type of favor?”

  To his credit, his brother refrained from making his typical comments, which must’ve cost him real effort. The guy lived for opportunities like that.

  “Can you switch rotations with me?”

  “Just tonight, or in general?”

  “Tonight.” He would’ve loved to fob off all of his rotations on someone else, but the other Guardians were in no position to take on any additional load.

  “Any special reason?”

  Evidently, it was too much to hope for Anandur to just do it without asking questions and commenting.

  “My reasons are my own. Can you do it, or not?”

  “I’ll do it. And if you tell me what it’s about, I’ll take over all of your rotations for the next month. Hopefully, by then the murders will stop, and there will be no more need for us to do it.”

  It was tempting.

  It was extremely fucking tempting.

  “I’ve stuff I need to do in the evenings and nights. Stuff I’ve been doing for a long time. This thing with the rotations
is putting a real strain on my time.”

  Anandur crossed his arms over his chest. “Not good enough, bro. I need details.”

  Damnation. What to do? Confide in his brother, or keep going on the fucking rotations?

  Contrary to what everyone thought of him, Anandur was good with secrets. He wouldn’t rat Brundar out.

  “This stays between us.”

  Anandur nodded. “Naturally.”

  “And I don’t want to hear any comments or remarks from you. I don’t find them funny.”

  Anandur tapped his chest over his heart. “You wound me, but then you have no sense of humor, and my jokes are wasted on you.”

  “Are you done?”

  “Yes.”

  “I bought half of a club I’m a member of. The owner is a shitty businessman, and it was about to go under. I liked the place, so I decided to save it, thinking of it as an investment. But my money is not going to keep it afloat unless things change and it starts turning up a decent profit.”

  Anandur eyed him curiously as if he was seeing him in a whole new light. “My little bro is a businessman, who would’ve guessed?”

  “Are you going to take over my rotations, or not?”

  Anandur lifted a finger. “One last question.”

  Brundar tensed. There was no doubt in his mind what his nosy brother’s question would be about. He’d been trying to get information on Brundar’s mystery woman since the first day he’d guessed her existence.

  “Is it working? Did you make the place profitable?”

  Hell and damnation. This wasn’t the question Brundar had been expecting. He was more than happy to answer this one.

  “At this point, I’m glad it’s no longer bleeding money. There is a small profit, but I’m working on making it bigger.”

  “I’m proud of you.” Anandur clapped him on the back. “It’s good that you’re showing interest in things other than your sword, and that you’re good at it too. I always knew you were smart.”

  As Anandur geared up and left their apartment, Brundar changed into his club attire, which consisted of black jeans and a black T-shirt. Thinking about his conversation with Anandur, it occurred to him that his brother had never asked what type of club it was.

  Brundar frowned. It was not like Anandur to leave a detail like that unanswered. His brother was too shrewd for that. Which made Brundar suspect that Anandur had known about it all along. Maybe not the part about him owning half of the place, but about his membership.

  Sneaky bastard had probably planted a tracker on Brundar’s Escalade. The first thing he was going to do when he got down to the garage was to check every inch of that car until he found it.

  Damnation. What if Anandur made a habit of spying on him and knew all about Calypso?

  CHAPTER 56: CALLIE

  Groggy and confused, Callie opened her eyes and saw a familiar room. In front of her, next to the front door, was the clock she’d bought two months ago to cover yet another hole in the wall; to her right was the couch and to her left the kitchen.

  Callie’s head hurt something awful, and so did her jaw. She tried to move it a little, but it hurt like hell.

  The sharp pain cleared the fog in her head enough for her to realize she was tied up to a chair. Duct tape secured each wrist to an armrest, her torso to the back of the chair, her calves to its legs, and her thighs to its seat. It was one of the stacking chairs they kept in the garage for when Shawn invited his buddies from work to watch a football game. The frame was aluminum. Unbreakable.

  She was going to die in that chair. Shawn was going to kill her.

  How had he found her? She and Brundar had been so careful.

  “You’re awake. Good. I want you to watch me kill your boyfriend.”

  Shawn entered the living room with another chair and put it down right next to her. He then walked over to the coffee table and picked up two handguns. Taking a seat, he had one gun loosely gripped in his hand, the other on his lap.

  “Are you comfortable?” He wasn’t expecting a response. “You should thank me for arranging a front row seat for you. You’re not going to miss a thing. I hope his blood sprays your tits, same way you’ve let his come do.”

  He looked crazed, but his tone was calm as if he was talking about the weather, which was much more worrisome than if he was shouting and raging. She’d never seen him like that before. The hatred, the cruelty, had turned his handsome face into a monstrous mask. Or had the face he’d shown her before been the mask, and this was his real one?

  She’d married a monster.

  Cold sweat trickled down Callie’s back. Her life was forfeit, but she wouldn’t let Brundar sacrifice his on her behalf. She was going to lie and plead like her life depended on it, even though she had a feeling nothing was going to save her.

  “What boyfriend? What are you talking about?”

  Calmly, as if he was swatting a fly, Shawn backhanded her. Pain exploded in her cheek, stars blinking behind her tears.

  “Don’t lie to me, bitch. Your fucking elf lover is going to come for you, and I’m going to shoot first and ask questions later. I’m not going to give him a chance to hypnotize me again.”

  She had no idea what he was talking about but was afraid to say so. He was obviously delusional. There was something in the elf reference, but not the one about Brundar hypnotizing him.

  “You’re such a stupid cunt, Callie. You could’ve lived like a queen. I was saving up for us to move to a nicer place. You think what I put in our joint account was all the money I made? Just shows how stupid you are. I would have never put all my money where you could put your grubby little hands on it. I have hundreds of thousands stashed in different bank accounts. Accounts no fucking divorce lawyer could’ve found, so don’t you get any ideas.”

  Did it mean he wasn’t planning on killing her? A dead woman couldn’t contact a divorce lawyer.

  “If you were just a little more agreeable as a wife, you could have had everything a woman could want. But no, you had to argue about every goddamned thing instead of listening to your husband. Your older and much smarter husband.”

  Delusional indeed.

  As if she’d argued about anything. Throughout their marriage, Shawn had treated her as his personal maid, expecting her to do all the cooking and the cleaning and the picking up after him even though she worked too and put all of her money into their joint account, not just a small portion of it like he had done.

  But there was no sense in arguing the point with a madman. He would just hit her again, and she was already in so much pain she was fighting to stay awake and not to black out.

  He turned to her. “What did you lack? Were you embarrassed about being married to a car salesman? Just so you know, I got a new job.” He smiled evilly. “A very well-paying managerial job. I’m the top guy and what I say goes. They chose me because I’m a natural born leader. But only my whoring cunt of a wife couldn’t see it!”

  He lifted his hand again, and Callie flinched, expecting a blow, but it didn’t come. His hand was gentle as he cupped her bruised cheek. “You were so young. Maybe if I slapped you around from the start, taught you to obey, none of this would have happened.” He waved the gun between them.

  He slapped her then, lightly, but it was over the big bruise he’d left before, and the pain was too much for Callie to keep the tears from leaking.

  Shawn wiped her tears with his thumb. “I like this look on you. Beaten and defeated. You’d better get used to it because you’ll be wearing it every goddamned day until the day you die.”

  CHAPTER 57: BRUNDAR

  It was ten o'clock when Brundar parked his Escalade in the club’s parking lot.

  Calypso was going to be so surprised. She wasn’t expecting him until the early hours of the morning. He’d wanted to bring her a nice meal like he’d done yesterday, but he’d been in a rush to get to the club. Besides, nothing could top Gerard's culinary genius.

  Instead, Brundar had emptied the vending m
achines of all the remaining pastries. Callie was going to love them for breakfast.

  He smirked thinking of all the pissed off immortals who were going to find the machines empty. They would probably blame Jackson for not restocking them in a timely manner.

  Perhaps he should bring her one now? A little energy boost to help her through her shift?

  Taking a pastry out of the paper bag, Brundar searched his glove compartment for a clean cloth. He always kept several on hand in case he needed to clean his weapons.

  He wrapped the pastry in the cloth, put it in his leather jacket’s roomy pocket, got out of his car, and locked it, activating the alarm. This wasn’t the best of neighborhoods, and his brand new Escalade was too tempting of a target.

  Brundar saw Donnie as soon as he rounded the corner, sitting on the sidewalk and rubbing the back of his head. A feeling of dread raised the small hairs on the back of his neck as he sprinted toward the bouncer.

  “What happened?” He crouched next to him.

  “I don’t know. One minute I was showing Callie my comics, the next someone hit me over the back of the head. By the shape of the lump, I think it was a gun.” He patted his pants pocket. “Weird, my wallet is still here. Someone must’ve scared the guy off.”

  “Where is Calypso?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she went inside to get help?”

  Brundar had a bad feeling. Whoever had knocked Donnie out, was obviously after something other than his wallet. He ran inside, stopping by the receptionist. “Did Calypso come in?”

  The girl pointed at the door. “She is taking her break outside with Donnie.”

  “She is not. I’m asking again. Did you see her coming in?”

  “No. I thought she was still outside. What’s going on?”

  “Call Franco. Donnie was hit over the head and needs to be taken to the hospital. I’m going to look for Calypso.”

  He didn’t wait for her response as he dashed out, stopping momentarily by Donnie. “Franco is coming, and he is going to take you to see a doctor. I’m going to look for Calypso.”