I looked around not seeing Nico and then I held in a scream as my eyes caught sight of the figure hanging upside down on the ceiling above me. It was Nico crouched like a spider, hanging there defying gravity, with a finger to his lips, willing me to be quiet.
I swallowed back a scream. Between the man with the sword and Nico hanging from the ceiling, I didn’t know what scared me more. Then the man stepped forward, “Come out now, or I’ll kill the girl.”
A sound that was more like a hiss came from the ceiling and I looked up to see Nico with teeth bared, long canines clearly displayed. I screamed as he moved as if at the speed of light across the ceiling and launched himself at William. I watched in horror as they hit the ground, struggling, William clearly unmatched as Nico picked him up and tossed him like a ragdoll through the one remaining window. He then moved so fast that I could barely keep up with him as he moved to pick up William and then held him over the ledge, legs kicking, by the neck.
“Put me down, you monster,” William said between gasps of breath.
“You’re the monster,” Nico growled back and tightened his hold on William’s neck.
I didn’t wait to see how the story ended. As soon as I was able to rip my eyes from what was going on in front of me, I willed my legs to move and I ran out of the apartment. I hit the call button for the elevator and sprung in just in time. I breathed a sigh of relief and then screamed when I realized I wasn’t alone in the elevator.
“Hello Miss Charles,” said the gaunt, greasy looking man standing in the corner that calmly took out a gun and pointed it at me.
“You’re coming with me.”
I was already shaking and I couldn’t say a word as I stared at the man and then the gun. I felt faint and sick to my stomach. A million questions were running through my head. What was going on? Most importantly, what was Nico? I didn’t believe in vampires. I didn’t believe in anything relating to the paranormal. I had to be going crazy, I thought to myself. That was the only explanation. Yet that clearly wasn’t true given that I was being ordered around at gun-point.
The man reached out and hit a button, the elevator began to descend, and he seemed frighteningly calm as he surveyed me, letting his eyes linger on my cleavage and the leg exposed by the dress. I felt dirty as he looked at me and he seemed to like to make me feel uncomfortable as he said with a lecherous smile, “So you’re the vampire’s girlfriend? Funny. You look so normal. Sweet even.” He then reached out to touch me. I slapped his hand away and he pressed the gun against my face.
I stared at him defiantly and he reached again for my blouse when the elevator’s lights flickered off and then back on and we came to an abrupt hard stop, which knocked the thug off balance and the gun out of his hands. That was all the time I needed as I kicked him in the crotch and he went falling down to his knees. Simultaneously I heard the sound of metal being shredded and looked up to see Nico ripping away the ceiling of the elevator, his teeth bared, his pupils now tiny black points in blood red eyes.
I started to scream and then felt faint as he jumped down into the cabin of the elevator.
“You really do attract trouble,” he said as he punched the guy in his face who still was kneeling holding himself. There was a sickening thud when Nico’s fist smashed into the man and I wondered if he would be waking back up as the guy slumped to the floor. My eyes were wide as Nico then turned his attention and blood red stare, back to me.
Chapter Five
“What? What are you?” I said backing away from him.
“That’s obvious.” He said not moving towards me.
Soon I was as far away from him as I could get in the confines of the elevator.
“That can’t be. Vampires,” I gulped when I said it, “Aren’t real?”
“So am I a figment of your imagination?”
“Yes.”
He laughed harshly which bared his teeth and I sucked in a breath and looked around for a weapon.
“Are you going to kill me?” I said facing him when I found nothing.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re a vampire!”
“Shh... Calm down. I like this building. I don’t want to get evicted.”
My mouth fell open. His main concern was being evicted when there was a man bleeding everywhere on the elevator floor still holding on to his privates. The man moaned a little and Nico kicked him in his side.
“What’s going on?”
“Apparently a war on my kind.”
“There are more of you?”
He nodded, “Not many, but yes. Definitely more.”
“Why are they trying to kill you?”
He looked sad for a second, “They’ve hunted my kind for a while, but for centuries we hadn’t heard from them. Suddenly they were back. I guess they had been underground. They’re more organized now. I needed your help to find out more about the one you saw following me. I couldn’t get close to them or locate information about them as you could. That’s why I hired you. I never thought this would happen though. I’m sorry for putting you in danger.”
I didn’t know what to say. His eyes started to turn back to normal and I found that I was no longer as afraid. I knew deep down that Nico meant no harm.
I reached a shaky hand out to touch his teeth, “Do you kill people?” I said softly, snatching my hand back.
He shook his head solemnly, “I can survive fine on animal’s blood.”
“And you can walk in the sunlight?”
“Yes, contrary to what Hollywood says.” The elevator began to lurch to one side and he sighed. “It’s time to go. I need you to trust me.”
He reached down and tossed the bleeding guy over his shoulder. “Like I said, I’m not a killer. Take my hand.”
I hesitated and then I felt the elevator slowly move under my feet and I grabbed Nico’s hand. Just in time, it seemed as the elevator disappeared from beneath my feet, moving fast, out of control towards the bottom floor and I began to scream. I found myself tucked in Nico’s side as he effortlessly leaped through the ceiling of the elevator and grabbed hold to the cables in the elevator shaft.
I looked around, clinging to him. Afraid he would drop me. “Now what?”
“Hold on,” he said and he arranged me so that I was clinging to his neck, on his back.
“Please don’t drop me,” I whispered as the elevator final gave and the cable snapped, sending us hurtling to the ground. I screamed for what seemed to be forever and closed my eyes.
“Shhh,” I heard Nico say and I opened my eyes, only to find us in the crushed elevator, perfectly unscathed.
Even the bleeding guy on Nico shoulder slept through the entire ordeal.
I could hear voices and noise from a distance and then before I knew it, Nico was pulling back the elevator doors. We were stuck between floors and had to climb out to get to the next floor, but I was just grateful to be alive.
As Nico and I stumbled out paramedics descended on us, Nico pushed them away and said, “There’s one other guy in there. I think he needs help. He looks like he’s unconscious. As everyone went to peer in, Nico took me by my hand and winked.
Then he picked me up and before I could protest, he began to run. At least, I thought he was running. All I felt was the gush of wind on my face and the feeling of weightlessness and then finally, when everything became clear again, I was no longer in the lobby of his building. We were at my home.
I turned around, thinking I must indeed be dreaming and then I saw Nico easily opening the door besides it being locked, and he walked into my home as if he owned it. Of course a lock wouldn’t keep a vampire out.
I followed behind him, still in a state of shock for all I had learned that night. I sat down heavily on my couch and he sat on the loveseat across from me. Giving me room, he was still being thoughtful besides the craziness of our day.
I didn’t want to think about that. I willed my mind to think of anything else. We sat there in silence, until I said
abruptly said, “So is everything the same? I mean, are you an actual human. Do you all make love the same?”
He looked at me in surprise and then smiled, “Come here and find out.”
I didn't need another invitation as I approached him and crawled on top of him. Suddenly, I wasn’t afraid of him. I was curious. More than anything else, I was aroused.
We weren’t gentle with each other. We didn’t waste time on foreplay. I wanted to feel him inside me. The urgency was strong and I know he felt it too as he stripped me of my clothing and pushed his pants down. I marveled at the length and thickness of his cock. My fingers stroked him before my tongue caressed him until he couldn’t take anymore. I was sitting on top of him, still wet, about to take him into me when he surprised me by turning me around, so that my front faced his feet while I still sat up. Balancing up on my knees, I grabbed his shaft in my hand, let my finger roll over the pre-cum there and then greedily I opened my sex with my other hand and slowly began my descent down onto his shaft. As my wetness sealed around his member, he moaned and grabbed one of my butt cheeks in the palm of each of his hands. He squeezed them and rubbed them as I sank down completely on his shaft and began to ride him. I took my time at first, but then he started thrusting his hips up into me, controlling how deep I took him in, forcing me to accommodate more and more of him as he stretched my sex to the point where it was hard to differentiate pleasure from pain. He was big, thick, and so hard, it was a wonder that he fit.
As he moaned, I knew I wanted to see his face so without pulling him out of me, I grabbed the base of his sex and held him steady as I turned around so that my front was facing his face. I leaned forward and braced my hands against his chest as I ground my sex against his and he watched, eyes barely open as I finally was able to take him in, all the way in and then I began to seductively move my hips, letting him slip in and out of my wetness.
“God, you’re sexy.”
“Thank you,” I replied and began to run my fingers across my breasts. He pushed my hands away and said, “Let me do that.” He began to fondle my breasts and play with my nipples until they were heavy and erect.
I tossed my head back in pleasure. I loved it. It felt delicious. He felt wonderful.
“Not as wonderful as you do,” he said and I wasn’t that far into a sexual haze to realize I hadn’t spoken the words he responded to out loud. Was he seriously that perceptive or could he read my mind?
I got my answer immediately when he said, “Let me show you something.” Then still buried deep inside me, I felt as if his consciousness entered mine. I felt I was at one with him and in my mind’s eye, I saw a future with him---Together for what seemed to be an eternity. And as an orgasm rocked my body, my heart celebrated a joining of what felt less like two beings and more like two souls.
The End
Part II
Going Underground
Vampire Romance
About the Book
All she ever wanted was to sing...
Leliana has wanted to be a singer ever since she was a little girl, entertaining people on stage to help them forget their worries while she basked in the glow of the stage lights. Though that never happened, she settled for the next best thing: living out her dreams as a private eye.
The reality is far less glamorous than the radio shows used to make it, but the pay is good, so she can't complain too much. Typically, her cases involve someone running out on their spouse, or someone missing an item that was stolen. Tonight, however, she's in for the case of a lifetime.
When a wealthy man's daughter goes missing, it's up to her to track her down. She expects it to be just another case in her cap, until the trail leads her into a den of vampires. As if that didn't complicate things enough, one of them takes a shine to her, and soon she's caught up in a broiling underworld conflict that she should have no part of for his sake.
All in a day's work for Leliana Tornbeau, really.
Chapter One
“So you're telling me,” Leliana said as she leaned back in her chair, “That your daughter has gone missing,” she folded her hands in front of her and kicked up her feet on the edge of her desk as she stared down her most recent prospective client. He was a wealthy man, if naïve, and it didn't take much for her to see that he had been out of his depth long before he had made it to her doorstep. The man, one Mister James Cooper was seated opposite her, in one of the wooden chairs set up for clients to take a seat at while they told her of their woes. He fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable with her light scrutiny of his disposition before clearing his throat and sitting up a little straighter in his seat.
“Err, yes, that's right,” he said with a cough of embarrassment. “Succinctly put, Miss Tornbeau.” He fidgeted in his seat again. “I fear that she has been kidnapped, but the police won't do anything about it! They assume that because she's been a trouble maker in the past that she's just run off! I feel like I have nowhere else to turn to!” Leliana wondered if it burned him that he had to walk through Harlem to get to her, or even that it was her that he had to turn to. She smoothed out the sleeves of her peacoat, the heather gray fabric stark against her deep umber skin. Normally, it wasn't an issue for anyone who came here; almost all of the people that found their way here were the kindest people that she could have hoped to work with, no matter where they came from. But this man was clearly not used to venturing far out of his gilded community, and the streets of Harlem might have been quite the shock to his sensitivities.
Still, a contract was a contract, she thought to herself as she observed him.
“And you want me to go and find her, and, preferably, bring her home?” He nodded mutely. She sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Do you have any evidence indicating that that isn't the case? That she hasn't run off, I mean,” she said before realizing how that sounded. “Not that I want to come across as insensitive – whatever the case may be, I'll find your daughter,” she vowed as she straightened in her chair, pulling her feet down and tucking them back under the desk.
“Oh!” He evidently hadn't anticipated that line of questioning – perhaps he hadn't thought that she would consider his offer this seriously, or perhaps he was just used to being turned away by the police. Either way, he seemed to recover fairly quickly. “Yes! Yes, just a moment,” he fumbled in his briefcase beside his chair for a moment before producing a photograph and a piece of paper. “Here,” he handed the items over to her for her inspection. “I found them to be quite curious, as I'd never seen anything like it in my life!”
She gave the paper a once over first, curious as to what it could contain. It was a letter, a farewell letter, it seemed, written in deep red ink and told her father that she was running away to get away from his tyranny. It wouldn't have struck her as odd, but for the ink color and the hand writing – she could have sworn that she'd seen it somewhere before, but she couldn't put her finger on where.
“I'm guessing this isn't her handwriting,” she said as she inspected the paper closer. She could faintly smell the scent of copper off of the paper, confirming her suspicions that the ink was, in fact, blood. So, she thought grimly as she set the paper aside. At least one vampire was involved. That complicated matters.
Vampires, amongst other things that went bump in the night, weren't uncommon, and were usually not a problem – they all contributed to society, and there were ways for vampires in particular to find ways to feed without needing to harvest people. All in all, it was usually a non-issue when you ran into one. But there were outliers, ones that didn't like to obey the rules, and those were the ones that were hard as hell to deal with. Nobody liked them, not even their own kin, and it never took long for them to be caught with whatever it was that they were doing.
She would have to cast her net of contacts wider, she realized.
“It isn't in her hand, no,” James said, hands resting on his dome of a midsection. “That's what had me worried.” Leliana nodded, setting the letter to the side and picking up t
he photograph, turning it over to see what the camera had captured. She immediately set the photo down to hide the fact that her hands were trembling. Depicted in the photo, was a bedroom, decorated the way a young teenager might want, with books and a school bag, and clothes strewn about. On the window, etched into the glass, was a symbol that would stick out in any ordinary setting: a circle, with the letter, 'X' carved in the middle of it, with a line slicing the symbol in half vertically.
Even to supernatural creatures, that symbol wasn't to be taken lightly; it was a notorious gang of vampires that often took their prey from wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and damn the consequences. They took people of all kinds – werewolf, human, vampire, even some ghouls if they were feeling particularly emboldened. The Excavators, as they came to call themselves, always left this calling card behind whenever they took someone. The police rarely believed that they were involved, as they usually left no other evidence at the scene, it came to be assumed that it was an urban legend that people bought into.
How do you tell someone that their daughter might be a thrall to a vampire?
“I've got some contacts to get in touch with,” Leliana said as she tucked the photo away. “But rest assured, I'll do everything I can to bring your daughter home safely.”
“Oh, thank you! Thank you!” The portly man said tearfully, as though he had finally found his salvation in her. She grimaced, and hoped that he didn't think of her that way; the case had only just started, and she was sure as shit no miracle worker, she thought with a frown. “I'll reward you handsomely for your efforts!” As they worked out the payment arrangements, she began to tick off in her head who she could reach out to in order to get info from the Underground, the haven for most supernaturals that didn't want to fully conform to modern day society, and those that wanted to get away for a while and appreciate the old society that most of them hailed from.
Fallen Angel (Paranormal Romance) Page 34
