by Lisa Olsen
My eyes adjusted instantly to the dim lighting in the alley, the soft murmur of conversation reaching me as I drew nearer. I spotted them on the other side of the dumpster, Bishop had her pressed up against the wall, whispering endearments at her ear. For a long moment I watched them, feeling like I was intruding, until his eyes fixed on mine. Holding my gaze, he brushed his lips along the side of her neck. “Join us,” he smiled invitingly. “You don’t mind do you, sweetheart?”
“I don’t mind.” The brunette smiled back dutifully, her focus on Bishop. I approached them slowly, still a little uncomfortable with it all, but he looked completely in control. “Anja this is Holly. Say hello, Holly.”
“Hello,” she smiled obligingly.
“Hello,” I replied softly, wondering if he intended to drink from her right there in the alleyway. Somehow I thought we would go somewhere more private, but in theory he knew what he was doing.
“Holly is very healthy, aren’t you?” Bishop smiled, his fingers tracing along her jaw and down the side of her neck to follow the deep scoop of her neckline. Is it bad that in that moment I wished I could trade places with her?
“Yes, I am,” she said proudly.
“Good girl.” Bishop kissed her temple lightly before fixing those green eyes on me. “Bite her.” The girl tilted her head away obligingly, almost inviting me to do as he said.
I watched them with dismay, not sure why I found the idea so distasteful. I hadn’t had any problems with the idea of eating Bridget, as sick as that sounded in my head. “I don’t… I’m not sure I can…”
“Survival, remember? Is it because I picked a woman? Now is not the time to be prudish,” he chastised gently.
“I am not a prude! I was going to bite Bridget, remember? Somehow I think this is a little outside the realm of normal experience, okay?”
“I don’t think she’s a prude,” Holly interjected and Bishop shot her a withering look.
“Who asked you?”
“Nobody,” she admitted cheerfully. Bishop closed his eyes for a minute and I could see that pinched look of almost pain coming over his features when things weren’t going down exactly to plan.
“Look, forget it, I’ll go find a guy on my own…” I turned away to leave.
“Absolutely not.” His voice was a low and dangerous growl, surprising me as he caught my arm hard enough to hurt which was saying a lot now.
“Wow, someone’s jealous,” Holly giggled and he spared her a scowl before tugging at my arm.
“I’m not even all that hungry. I already ate tonight, remember?”
“You’re stalling.”
“I’m sorry! But we’re here for you to train me so I’ll learn how to do it on my own, right? And I don’t think I’d ever pick someone like her. No offense, Holly.”
“None taken,” she replied equably, and Bishop let go of me in disgust.
“Fine, who would you choose?”
“Not to be a prude, but I think I’d pick a guy.” Remembering what it felt like when I’d drunk from him, I had a feeling it would get pretty intimate and Holly wasn’t my type. “Unless you can give me a reason why I shouldn’t feed on a man?”
Bishop’s jaw tightened, throat working while he swallowed back whatever off the cuff reply he’d been planning. “Go ahead then, knock yourself out. It sounds like you don’t need me anymore.”
“No wait, don’t leave.” I clutched at his arm. “Of course I still need you, but I need to learn how to do it my way, right?”
“Right.” His answer was given through clenched teeth.
“So will you help me?”
A long breath was given. “Go ahead, pick your guy. I’ll take care of Holly.”
“You’ll be here when I come back?” I didn’t think I’d be brave enough to try anything without him there. What if I lost control and ended up killing the guy?
“I’ll be here.”
I hoped ‘taking care of Holly’ meant putting her in a cab and not the dumpster, but I decided not to ask. Giving him a smile and a wave good bye to Holly, I left the alley and hoped for the best.
* * *
In a way it was good that I’d pushed back a little. It gave me the opportunity to see what it would be like to really stalk my prey on my own, and trust me, I cringed on the inside when thinking about it in those terms. If I couldn’t make it work, I might as well throw in the towel and ask him to stake me, because I knew after that night I’d truly be on my own.
Settling back into my spot at the end of the bar, I let my gaze sweep over the crowd. Eenie, meenie, miney…. moe. I spied a likely candidate - blonde haired, blue eyed, with a wholesome look about him, no date in sight. For a moment I considered trying to lure him out of the bar on my own merits, no compulsion involved like Bishop had, but in the end I wasn’t confident in my ability to do it as quickly as I had in mind. Putting a little extra sway in my step, I settled onto the empty bar stool beside the guy, smile at the ready.
It was easier than I’d thought it would be to chat up a complete stranger in a bar. Maybe knowing I could look into his eyes and make him like me if he blew me off lessened that possibility of rejection, making me bold. Josh was an intern at Kramer, Jacobs and Finch, waiting for a tow truck to jump start his car. It was easy, oh so easy, to get him to forget about his other plans for the night, and it was a heady feeling knowing I could get him to do anything for me. I could have crooked my finger at him and gotten him to give me everything in his wallet, the keys to his car, or come into a dark and deserted alley late at night.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Bishop watching me from the other end of the bar, and I wondered if he’d come back in because he was worried about me, or if he didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off. Conscious of Bishop’s scrutiny, I leaned closer to Josh than I had to, touching him liberally on the arm, the chest, the thigh… I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye where Bishop sat at that last touch, but I didn’t want to let on that I was trying to get a rise out of him on purpose.
I wasn’t really sure why I tried to get a reaction out of him, maybe it was a way of trying to get him to regret pushing me away at every turn. In the end, I decided to stop playing with my food and slid off the bar stool, my blonde admirer in tow. Taking him straight through the parking lot, I beckoned towards the alley, my eyes full of promise. Taking a page from Bishop’s example with Holly (I wondered how she was doing?), I pressed him up against the wall, my borrowed heels giving me enough height to reach his neck easily.
“Why are we in the alley? I thought we were going to a party?” he asked nervously, even as I laid a kiss to the pulse at his neck.
“This is the party, Josh,” I smiled, my hands spreading across his chest. Meeting his eyes again, I exerted another burst of control over him. “You want this don’t you?”
“Want this…” he nodded, all trace of worry disappearing from his voice.
That was all I needed to hear, my fangs descending as the sweet siren song of his blood called out to me. This was it, the big moment. There was no turning back now. I had to trust that Bishop would be there to stop me if I lost control. Losing all hesitation, my instincts kicked in and I practically lunged for the poor guy’s throat; the bright blood instantly filling me with a thirst that had no end.
Josh cried out softly as I bit into his neck, arms enfolding around me as his body responded to the pleasure mingled with pain. Much as when I drank from Bishop, the desire to touch him swept through me, but it was a pale shadow of what I’d felt earlier that evening. Still, my hands traveled over his body, grasping and stroking, all the while I drank, reveling in the feeling of power.
Dimly I became aware of the fact that Bishop had joined us in the alley, but I was much too distracted to notice if he approved of my selection or technique or whatever he was judging me on. Suddenly he was at my side, our bodies lightly touching as he joined me in the feast. Josh didn’t seem to mind the intrusion, in fact, it sounded like he was having
a helluva time from the noises he made.
The next thing I knew, my hand smoothed up Bishop’s body, seeking him out instead of the victim’s. Just as I had in his apartment, my body craved his, the blood fueling the desire to touch and be touched. To my surprise, Bishop responded in kind. His cool hand splayed across the small of my back, dipping inside the waistband of my jeans… I felt his moan of pleasure, reverberating through Josh, and a shiver of delight went through me to the core of my being.
I was adrift on a sea of paradise, my senses drowning from overstimulation and I never wanted it to end. All too soon I felt Bishop pulling at my shoulders, urging me away from my nirvana. Stubbornly I resisted, Josh’s heart still beat a mile a minute and there was more blood to be had.
“Anja…” His voice was low but firm at my ear as he wrenched me away. Frustrated, I fought him, so that he had to catch my wrists and hold them tight, pinning me to the wall even as we’d pinned our victim only moments before. “Calm down… take a breath. It’ll pass in a minute,” he soothed.
Take a breath? That was his advice? What if I didn’t want it to pass? Trapped against the wall with his body pressed up against mine, I felt a different kind of appetite flare and sharpen into want. I sucked in a ragged breath, trying to reign in my impulse to beg him to… to… I couldn’t even say what I wanted Bishop to do, I just know that I wanted him.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed, my voice hoarse with need. I met his eyes in the uncertain light, and I saw the struggle behind them. Was he tempted to keep feeding too? I was still marveling over his iron willpower, when Bishop’s mouth descended over mine, the taste of Josh’s blood mingling between us. With a soft sound of surprise, I met his kiss with equal fervor, the blood forgotten as a fresh hunger swept over me. On and on the kiss went, with Josh’s body slumped against the wall beside us as we grappled with each other, consumed by a new kind of desire.
Until Josh managed to recover from his stupor. “Um, am I interrupting something?” he asked, puzzled at the position he found himself in. Bishop growled, his hand shooting out to grab Josh’s throat to silence him, his lips never leaving mine.
I tore my mouth away from his. “Let him go.” I gave him a pointed look.
He dropped his hold on Josh instantly, eyes squinching shut as he struggled to regain control of himself. I became intimately aware of how closely our bodies were pressed together, and from the feel of him hard against my hip, he was aware of it too. Or was that because of the feeding? I had no idea how much of what passed between us was because of the blood and how much might be something else. Swallowing nervously, I dropped my gaze.
Josh coughed, hand going to his throat and I struggled to pull myself together and finish what I’d started. “You’re not feeling so hot, Josh, you should go on home. Get some rest, maybe stay home from work tomorrow, but then you’ll start to feel better, okay?”
“Okay.” His shoulders slumped at the suggestion of feeling ill, but then he slouched off out of the alley. Bishop made no move to pull away, but he’d gone completely rigid beside me, his eyes still shut tight.
“That was… that was, wow…” I said finally, my voice as shaky as my nerves.
“It means nothing.” Bishop put a few feet of distance between us, turning to look down the length of the alley.
“Boy, if that was nothing, I can’t wait to see something,” I quipped, surprised to find my legs were strong enough to support me when he pulled away. Whatever strength I found disappeared at tightly coiled anger on his face when he whirled to face me.
“You seem to think there’s something between us. Let me make this perfectly clear. I’m helping you because your ignorance can get you killed and expose us to the humans. That’s all.”
I stared back at him, swallowing back the hurt his words produced. Why was he so mad all of a sudden? I wasn’t the one giving off mixed signals, he’d been the one to kiss me. Pain melded into a ball of cold resolve as I shoved the humiliation away, my head coming up a fraction. “So you’re saying you don’t give a damn about me.”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“You’re just doing your job.”
“The job is all that matters, anything else is a distraction.”
“What happened between us…”
“Is not a big deal, it’s common when sharing a feeding.”
“It’s just the blood that made you kiss me like that, that’s what you’re sticking with?”
“I told you, it was nothing.”
“Then let me go.”
In the course of the exchange, he’d managed to press me up against the side of the building again, his hands grasping the tops of my arms tightly. I saw what looked like defeat on his face for a fraction of an instant before his mask snapped back in place. Without a word he pushed away, boots ringing on the pavement in his haste to get away. I sagged against the building, more confused than ever when I heard his words float back to me on the breeze.
“Easier said than done…”
Chapter Sixteen
You know that feeling you get when things are going badly and you know they can’t get any worse? How is it that things can always get worse?
I was still muttering to myself over temperamental men with more mood swings than sense when I turned onto my street. All I wanted was to change into my comfy pj’s and curl up on the sofa with a real gentleman like Darcy, Knightly, or even a scoundrel like Rhett.
Too bad Detective Lucas had other plans.
“You don’t call, you don’t write. I’m starting to think you don’t want to see me anymore,” he quipped, his ready smile making me wonder if he somehow knew what I’d been up to that night. He couldn’t possibly know I’d… Oh God, what if Josh had died after leaving the bar and someone pointed me out as the last person to see him alive?
“I’m sorry,” I managed to get out. “I’ve been busy…”
“It’s okay,” he shrugged easily. “I have a crazy work schedule too, but I’m willing to try and make it work if you are.”
“Can I help you with something, Detective?” Unsure what he was up to, I let him follow me into the building and up the stairs.
“I thought you were going to tell me if you remembered something about that night.”
“I was,” I nodded, “and I don’t.” Not exactly a lie, the single dream I’d had about the experience couldn’t be called a true memory.
“You were spotted at the crime scene, how did you know to go there?”
“I was?” Frak... Was he having me watched or the place I was attacked? I was pretty sure we’d be having a different conversation if I was the one being shadowed. “I got the address from the ambulance company. I have a friend at the hospital.” I was becoming a much better liar, only I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Oh right, your roommate, Miss Russo.”
“That’s her. And I already told you everything I remember, so…”
“Okay, let’s say for a minute I buy that,” he shrugged noncommittally. “What about the murder last night?”
“What? Who died last night? Did he kidnap someone else?” Could I have a new vampire sibling even now at the morgue, waiting to wake up for the night?
“No, I’m talking about Trent Stenger, who I believe was your ex-boyfriend.”
“Trent is dead?” I stared at him in shocked silence.
“They don’t get any deader.”
“But, I just saw him…”
“I’ll say you did. Want to tell me what the two of you were fighting about?”
Oh no… “We weren’t fighting, not exactly.”
“I’d hate to see you with the gloves off then, by all accounts you cracked him a good one. What were you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I didn’t mean to hit him, it just sort of… happened.”
“Uh huh. And did you have a history of hitting him… accidentally before?”
“No! I’d never done anything like that before in my
life!” I replied with absolute conviction. It was only after I’d died that I turned into this violent creature with a hair trigger temper. What would happen if the cops found out I’d belted Serena the same night? Would they decide I was a prime suspect due to my violent outbursts? Would they find out about my attack on Josh?
I was saved from making an inappropriate outburst by Bridget’s appearance from the bedroom. “Hey, who’s this?”
“Bridget, this is Detective Lucas.” I wasn’t sure if I should say why he was there or not, but he seemed glad to see her.
“Great, you’re home.” He rose and gestured for her to join us. “That’s two I can cross off my list at once. You were a friend of Trent Stenger’s too, weren’t you?”
Bridget’s lips curved into an unpleasant smile. “If that means wanting to flambé his balls and serve them up to him with toast points, then yeah, we were friends. Why?”
She was shooting herself in the foot! “Bridge, Trent’s dead,” I interjected, wanting to save her from saying anything else incriminating.
“No shit? How’d he die? Wait, let me guess, autoerotic asphyxiation?” She looked only moderately surprised by the news, but I knew her well enough to tell it was quite a shock. Beneath the tough exterior, I knew she’d been deeply hurt by Trent’s betrayal. Not so hurt she’d go after him with a machete and a torch, but more hurt than she let on.
“Before we get to that, do you mind if I ask you where you were last night?”
“Not at all. I was out with Anja all night. We went to a bar called the Bloody Hart or something like that.”
“The Bleeding Hart?” he asked. I was surprised to hear the detective was familiar with a vampire bar, but then again, he might not know it was a hangout for the undead.
