by Trisha Telep
“Damn it Joss, you didn’t give me the chance. My time on the Council was almost over. Once it ended, we could have had a future together. But if what I had planned had gotten out, it would’ve jeopardized the Council’s work for that entire session. Even if I’d been willing to risk it, you wouldn’t have.”
Regrets and memories wouldn’t change the present circumstances. It was time to deal with reality, not dreams.
She resumed her seat, doing her best to sound professional and calm. “So you suspect that your former betrothed has set you up?”
“Yes, I do. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. The dead human and I had a history of conflict. Petra had to know I’d be charged, and that I’d ask for you. She couldn’t risk killing both of us, but . . .”
“If I execute you, it allows her to strike back at both of us from a safe distance.”
She’d only met Petra a handful of times, but there was no denying the instant dislike they had for each other. Josalyn was honest enough to admit that a healthy dose of jealousy coloured her reaction to Rafferty’s betrothed, but that wasn’t all there was to it.
The female had treated anyone other than the upper-echelon vampires with disdain. She caused so much animosity that it had jeopardized the Council’s work whenever she attended the sessions. If Petra was behind the charges against Rafferty, Josalyn wouldn’t hesitate to take the bitch down.
He must have sensed her decision. “So what do we do next?”
“We? You seem to be rather tied up at the moment.” She gave a pointed look at his chains.
“You can change that.”
It was true that Chancellors could take prisoners with them to investigate the case. However, if the prisoner escaped, the Chancellor paid an awful price. They would wear matching ankle bracelets that released a warning shock if they became separated by more than 50 feet. The power of the jolt increased greatly with distance, until the charge would immobilize the strongest vampire or Chancellor until law enforcement officers arrived to collect them. The felon was summarily executed, and the Chancellor was sent to prison to serve out the rest of the felon’s original sentence.
Considering the usual calibre of clientele Chancellors dealt with, it was no wonder the practice was rare. Did Josalyn trust Rafferty that much? Apparently she did. She was on her feet and yelling for the guard before she was even aware of having made her decision.
One thing he’d always liked about Joss was that once she made up her mind to do something, it got done and the gods help anyone who tried to stop her. Right now his body was rapidly repairing itself thanks to the donation of fresh blood singing through his veins. The guard who’d argued with Joss over taking Rafferty with her had learned the hard way not to cross her. The fool’s sore neck would reinforce that lesson.
“Thanks for the meal, Joss. Prison guard isn’t my favourite vintage, but it’s a vast improvement over my recent diet. Rat blood is too weak.”
She came to an abrupt stop. “They were feeding you rats?” The dead calm didn’t disguise her anger.
“No, they fed me the legal minimum of expired blood from the blood bank. I supplemented that with rats or they would have had to carry me into that holding cell to talk to you.”
“Bastards.” Her dark eyes promised there would be a reckoning the first chance she got.
“So where are we going? He asked as they headed for her transport. He like that he didn’t have to shorten his strides to match hers. Those long legs of hers had featured in his favourite fantasies.
“To my hotel.” She checked the clock on her scanner. “We don’t have much time left before sunrise. I was going to set up interviews with some of the witnesses this morning, but that won’t work now with you tagging along.”
Yeah, vampires and sunshine didn’t mix well. If he had to follow her on daytime interviews, she might as well stake him now, “How many are you going to talk to?”
“All four of them. Normally I wouldn’t want them all in one place – too much chance of contaminating their testimony – but the Council will only let me have you for three days. And today counts as one of those days.”
She’d have him for a lot longer than that if things worked out. If they didn’t, at least he would have spent his remaining hours with her. He looked down at his clothing and grimaced.
“I’m not exactly dressed for the occasion.”
She straightened his collar. “Yeah, this does lack your usual style, but I have to interview them alone anyway. Talking to a Chancellor is scary enough without having to face the vampire they helped condemn. We can’t risk anyone recanting their testimony and then later claiming they were coerced.”
He nodded. “OK, I’ll be a good little vampire and cower in the next room.”
Joss laughed. “Oh yeah, I can see that. I don’t think ‘cower’ is in your vocabulary. Even if I’d come ready to stake you, you wouldn’t even have flinched. Your pride wouldn’t let you.”
They climbed into her transport. Joss rarely did things by half measures. As soon as the engine engaged, she ripped off down the road.
Gods above, he was tired. Eventually the daylight would force him to sleep. When he was at full strength, he could get by with only a few hours of rest. However, the strain of the past few weeks and the substandard prison fare had taken a toll.
“You can listen to the recordings of their testimony later. Most of their evidence is circumstantial, confirming the fact that you and the victim had a past.” Joss braked for a pedestrian.
“That was no secret.”
“And if that’s all the evidence the Council had, it wouldn’t have been enough to convict you. No, the damning evidence was your knife sticking in the bastard’s heart, which will be our next point of focus.” Joss tried to sound optimistic, but they both knew it wasn’t looking good.
She mustered a half-hearted smile. “Look, I don’t know about you, but I need a shower and sleep before I can think straight. It will be dawn soon, so let’s just get to the hotel.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she drove. “All you can do is try, Joss. We both know clearing my name is a long shot.”
She didn’t argue.
Twenty minutes later he sat in the hotel room while Joss showered. He eyed the bathroom door, wondering if she was willing to share her shower with him and, if so, what were the chances she’d share her bed. A vampire could always hope.
He fought the temptation to test the effectiveness of the ankle bracelet. Maybe if it was just his life at risk, but he wouldn’t hurt Joss. So for the moment, he contented himself with enjoying the relative freedom of the hotel room. The décor might be bland, but it beat his prison cell all to hell.
The sound of a heartbeat in the hallway preceded a sharp knock at the door. Rafferty yanked the door open to see a uniformed hotel employee holding out a shopping bag.
“Uh, the clothes you ordered sir.”
The young man looked understandably nervous to be addressing a vampire, which improved Rafferty’s mood considerably. “Where do I sign?”
The bellhop held out the bill. After Rafferty scrawled his name on the paper, the boy shoved the bag at him and bolted away. Rafferty could have told him that the worst thing he could do in front of a known predator was run. But rather than give chase, Rafferty focused on the prey he was really interested in, the one who had just finished her shower. A naked and wet Joss was much more to his taste.
Only the fact that he still reeked of prison kept him from cornering her in the bathroom. No, he’d scrub himself clean before making a move. They had only a limited time to track down Petra and clear his name. There was a good chance they’d fail, and he wasn’t going to miss out on his one opportunity to bed Josalyn. She might knock him on his ass for trying, but even that had its own appeal.
The bathroom door opened in a cloud of steam. Joss stepped out, still towelling her hair dry, her skin rosy. Her pulse was racing far faster than her calm expression could account for. She smiled at him.
“Your turn. I even left enough hot water for you.”
Hot, cold, he didn’t care. He stripped off his prison attire and tossed it at the trash can. Cranking the water up to full force, he scrubbed his skin clean. He could have spent hours luxuriating in the stinging spray, but he didn’t want to give Joss time to build up her defences.
As he dried off, he eyed the new clothes and decided it would be easier to crowd Joss if he wore nothing more than a towel and a hungry smile. As a vampire, he couldn’t check his appearance in the mirror without forcing his image to appear. He had a better use for his remaining energy.
Besides, Joss had already seen him at his worst and had not run screaming the other way. That didn’t mean she was going to fall into his arms. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, but her overpowering sense of duty could get in the way. She might try to resist his charm, but she’d be fighting the battle on two fronts – his desire for her and her own desire for him.
She was a warrior woman and would no doubt bring all that strength and intensity to the confrontation. Should be fun to see which one of them ended up on top when he finally did get her into that bed. Not that he cared. He reached for the doorknob and prepared to do battle.
Rafferty would be coming out soon. Josalyn hadn’t missed the predatory gleam in his eyes. Staring at the door, she was torn between drawing her weapon to keep him at arms length and stripping off naked to save both of them time. As reckless as that would be, it would be worth it to see his reaction. She’d lose her job if she gave into temptation, but her career was over with anyway. It would destroy her to execute him. If she didn’t have to, she planned on never letting him out of her sight again.
If she couldn’t make the Council happy, she might as well please herself.
She peeled her shirt off over her head. Her pants quickly followed, leaving only her pragmatic, government-issue underwear, She wasn’t much for lace and satin, but still felt a momentary regret. Knowing Rafferty, though, she wouldn’t keep it on long enough to matter anyway.
Should she stretch out on the bed or wait across the room? Definitely the latter. As the door opened, her breath caught in her throat as she waited for Rafferty to spot her. It didn’t take long.
The towel around his waist did little to hide the fact that their minds had been running along the same track. He stalked towards her, his fangs peeking out. Oh, yeah, this was going to be good.
He stopped just short of where she stood waiting. “I thought I’d have to convince you.”
The slight hint of indecision in his gaze vanquished the last of her own doubts. “This might be . . .”
He shushed her by putting his fingers on her lips. “Tonight is just for us.”
It had been months since he’d last touched her, but she remembered so clearly how it had felt to have his strong body pressed against hers as he’d fed. They hadn’t gone beyond that intimacy, but she’d wanted so much more. This time she wasn’t going to settle for almost. This time they were going to have it all.
She took the last step, leaving only a breath of space between them, to slide her hands across the smooth muscles of his chest. In response, his arms locked around her waist, pulling her tight against his erection. Both of them moaned at the sensation.
“Kiss me.”
She did as he ordered, brushing her lips across his and then tracing the length of his fangs with the tip of her tongue. Finally, their mouths fused together, giving into the need for that first taste.
He growled his approval deep in his chest, the vibration making her breasts ache and her nipples harden. His fingers traced the small scars he’d left on her skin, before moving on. He murmured his pleasure as she rained a trail of kisses down his jaw to the pulse point at the base of his neck.
In a sudden move, he ripped the back of her bra apart. She giggled and shrugged it the rest of the way off, before tugging his towel loose. Then her panties went the way of her bra. The differences in their heights was negligible, but he swung her up in his arms as if she shared the petite build of his ex. Shoving the thought of Petra to the back of her mind, Josalyn basked in the strength of her vampire lover. Once they were horizontal on the bed, he kissed her until she wasn’t sure where she stopped and he started.
“I want this to be perfect, Joss, but it’s been building for too long for me to wait much longer.” He made room for himself between her legs.
“We’ve waited too long already. Make me yours, Rafferty.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on as he thrust deep inside her. When he tried to slow down, she urged him on, chanting his name and digging into his skin with her nails.
He drove them both hard, staking his claim to her with his powerful strokes. When the first ripples of her climax began to build, he stared down at the pulsing blood vessels in her throat.
“Joss?”
That he’d ask rather than assume made her smile. “When I said make me yours, I meant it.”
“I’ll try to be gentle.” His fangs had run out far enough to make it hard to talk.
“I’m not fragile, Rafferty.” She turned her head to the side, granting him easier access.
He drew a shuddering breath and then struck. The sharp pain was lost in a flare of soothing heat. She was no innocent, but she’d never before experienced such intimacy as having Rafferty plunging into her throat and her body at the same time. The sensations burned through her from head to toe, immediately shoving her screaming over the precipice.
When the world righted itself, Rafferty lifted his head, gently withdrawing his fangs from his lover’s neck. He carefully licked the wounds closed, not wanting to leave a scar this time. The last time she’d allowed him to feed, he’d given in to the primitive urge to leave his mark on her. The small scars he’d left made sure she’d never forget that moment when he’d taught her what it meant to give herself over to a vampire lover.
She stirred restlessly beneath him. He moved to the side knowing she’d need her rest if they were going to bring Petra to bay. He’d only taken a little of Josalyn’s blood, enough to whet his appetite for more. But he couldn’t risk weakening her, not with his murderous ex out there plotting their downfall.
“Rafferty? You’re frowning pretty hard for a man who just indulged in life-altering sex.” Josalyn’s smile was tired, but extremely satisfied.
He couldn’t help but grin, delighted with his lover’s opinion of him. “Sorry, I was just trying to decide if I could survive a second helping.”
“Give me a few minutes to catch my breath and we can find out. If we don’t live through it, at least we’ll die happy.”
When she yawned loudly, he chuckled and tucked her in close as she tumbled over the edge into slumber. While she rested, he’d savour these moments of holding her in his arms.
Rafferty didn’t want to wake up, not if it was in his prison cell. Rather than open his eyes, he used his other senses to learn if he’d only been dreaming about Joss in his arms. He smiled. He could definitely here a heartbeat and the sound of breathing. His skin soaked in the warmth of a feminine leg sprawled over his and a hand carelessly flung across his chest. Breathing in slowly, he drew Joss’ sweet scent deep into his lungs.
It was no dream.
Joss stirred. “Something wrong?”
He tightened his arm around her and finally allowed his eyes to open. “No, we’re fine.”
She lifted her head up to blink at him sleepily. “What time is it?”
He didn’t need a clock to tell him. “The sun’s going down.”
“So, we need to get moving.”
“Not yet. A few minutes more.” Not enough time to do more than kiss her and hold her close, but he wasn’t going to give up even that much. But maybe, if he hurried . . .
He scooted down, intent on revisiting a few of his favourite spots on Joss’ body along the way. She had to be a bit sore from this afternoon, but there were other ways to please his woman. She grabbed his hair, stopping him j
ust short of reaching his intended target.
“As much as I appreciate the thought, Rafferty, we have work to do. We don’t have time for this.”
The stubborn set to her chin said she meant it. “Fine, be that way. Do you want the shower first?”
Her mouth softened into a wicked smile. “Why don’t we share and save time and water?”
When she released him, he rolled out of bed and held out a hand to her. “Let’s.”
The shower lasted longer than it should have, but Rafferty had used his considerable charm to coax her into a few intense moments that had nothing to do with getting clean. It was amazing what he managed to accomplish in a shower stall never meant to hold two people, much less two people engaged in mind-numbing sex. If his lovemaking had a desperate edge to it, she pretended not to notice.
Under the circumstances, she’d be a fool to get used to having Rafferty in her life, much less her bed. But the past 24 hours had only cemented her determination to clear his name. Rafferty wasn’t perfect, not by any standard. He was cocky, egotistical and all too full of himself. The one thing he wasn’t was stupid. And killing a known enemy with his own knife and leaving it stuck in the corpse was stupid beyond belief. She didn’t doubt for a moment that Rafferty was capable of killing, but this crime made no sense – unless it was a set-up.
She pulled out his file and began flipping the pages. Up to this point she’d been focusing on the trial and the testimony of the witnesses, but hadn’t there been a mention of a lien against the estate? Running her finger down the pages, it took her a while to find the reference buried in a paragraph of legal jargon.
“Rafferty, who stands to profit if you die? The Coalition will deduct the cost of your case from your estate if you’re executed. But who gets what’s left over?”
He finished tugging on his shirt before turning to face her. “I don’t have any family left. After any outstanding bills are paid, the rest will go to my heir.” His eyes shifted away, focusing on a point on the far side of the room.
“So who’s your heir? Could he be behind this?”
If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was blushing. “It’s not a he; it’s a she.”
