Forever Night Sins

by B. J. McCall

  Egan had to admire her. She wasn’t drenched in sweat like the men, and she wasn’t backing down. He let Noah’s head drop back, exposing his burned face to the camera. “His name is Noah, Agent Croix. I don’t want you to forget.”

  Tossing Noah’s dead body over his shoulder, Egan leapt toward the fire escape and grabbed the metal ladder. He climbed, moving fast. A bullet zinged past his head. Drawing on his strength and power, he jumped from platform to platform, without touching a stair.

  He was in a race for his life. He had to reach the roof before the agent lit up the fire escape with the ultraviolet floodlights mounted on the roof of her vehicle. The fear of being burned spurred him upward.

  Reaching the top, Egan jumped onto the roof and dropped. Like a shot, UV light lit up the building and the area above him. On his knees, Egan dragged Noah across the rooftop as far away from the lights as possible.

  He laid out Noah, said goodbye to the boy and left the area. Sunrise would cremate the remains. Sunset would bring Egan back to the streets for revenge.

  Chapter Two

  Harper checked her weapons before sliding into the driver’s seat of her vehicle. Alone, she drove toward the Cemetery to begin her patrol. She was pleased to finally be rid of the TV crew, but thanks to Hays she now had a pissed off vampire bent on revenge.

  She’d done the right thing protecting Hays and his cameraman, Gus, but Noah’s burned face stayed with her. Along with another face Harper wasn’t likely to forget. The vampire she’d let escape.

  She’d had one bullet left in her clip. If she had missed the shot the vampire would have attacked. Unarmed, she was no match for him.

  But she’d had a clear shot before Hays had stepped between them. Why had she hesitated? Why hadn’t she fired and taken down the vampire?

  Harper had mulled over that question too many times to count.

  He was unlike any vampire she’d encountered. He’d cared about the kid, unusual for a vampire. Strong, he hadn’t attacked nor had he lapped blood off the street like those ravenous vampires she’d killed.

  This vampire was different. His eyes had mesmerized her. Vampires had dark eyes, but his were silvery. Harper shivered at the memory. He looked about thirty-five, maybe younger. His hair was black, his face chiseled and attractive. Very attractive. Downright handsome. All male. And that rich voice, so controlled even while he threatened her with eyes blazing red with anger.

  His vampire age was difficult to judge, but he wasn’t a newbie. He hadn’t made a foolish rush for the pints of blood Hays had poured onto the street. He’d remained in command of his actions. Although he’d cradled the boy in his arms, the vampire was wily enough to use the teenager as a shield. Incredibly strong, he’d carried the boy up the fire escape with speed and ease. He might be decades old, even centuries.

  Vampires were dangerous, but old ones were also intelligent, powerful and cunning.

  Just fucking great, she had an old one targeting her ass.

  As long as she remained in her vehicle, the old one shouldn’t be a problem.

  Harper drove along the street bordering the Cemetery. Part of the job was letting the vampires know the DSA owned the streets. She circled the Cemetery and drove the streets fanning out from the vampire prison, never driving the same pattern.

  The politicians referred to the places like the Cemetery as vampire housing, but if it has walls around it and the occupants aren’t supposed to leave, it’s a prison.

  Around midnight, Harper made another pass by the Cemetery. Her headlights caught a flicker of movement. Then Harper saw something moving in the street. She slammed on the brakes.

  Lying in the street was a woman in a low-cut blue dress. The woman lifted her arm, flailing at the empty air as if warding off an attacker.

  Harper called dispatch and reported the situation. She flipped a switch and flooded the area with UV light, and jumped out of the vehicle.

  Barely conscious, the young woman had two puncture wounds on her neck. Protected by the UV floodlights, Harper stayed with the victim until the ambulance arrived. She scanned the area for signs of vampires. Obviously, she’d interrupted the vampire’s meal and had forced the bloodsucker to drop the victim and run.

  After the young woman was loaded into an ambulance, Harper returned to her vehicle and dictated a few notes into her dashboard recorder. She’d file an official report at the end of the shift. Right now, she wanted to find the biter.

  Two blocks away, she saw a vampire slinking along the side of a building and flipped on a roof-mounted UV spotlight controlled by a joystick on the dash. The blue light shot across the urban canyon but missed the vampire. She drove down the street, one hand on the wheel and the other on the joystick. If she caught the vampire in her blue beam the bloodsucker would be toast, literally.

  She caught a flicker of movement, a dark shadow darting across her path. She twisted the joystick but missed her prey. Instead of disappearing into the bowels of a building or onto a rooftop, the vampire played cat and mouse with the blue beam. Unable to tag the vampire, Harper chased the bloodsucker through the deserted city caverns.

  After the vampires were forced into the Cemetery, the humans abandoned the surrounding buildings, leaving apartments and businesses deserted. The dead zone between the living and the undead was Harper’s beat.

  A shadow moved and Harper turned the joystick. The vampire ducked into a dead-end alley.

  Harper hit the gas and turned into the alley, then slammed on the brakes. The patrol vehicle’s headlamps illuminated the narrow canyon. At the far end of the alley, a door stood open. The vampire had escaped, and only a fool chased a vampire inside an abandoned building alone.

  Harper swore and put the vehicle in reverse. She started to back up but stopped. Something pink was visible at the edge of the doorway. A scrap of cloth? A ribbon? Another victim?

  Vampires rarely wore color, preferring to blend into the night.

  Flicking a switch, Harper lit up the alley with all the roof-mounted ultraviolet lamps before climbing out of her vehicle. Light wand in hand, she approached the open door. Harper picked up the pink ribbon and pulled. The ribbon stretched, taut with resistance. Fearing the ribbon was attached to someone, Harper unclipped her sidearm and ignited her wand.

  Going inside was dangerous, but Harper had to find out if another female victim was inside. A shiver slid down her spine. She should call for backup and wait for another agent.

  Harper exhaled. The encounter with the old vampire had spooked her.

  Squaring her shoulders, Harper stepped into the dark windowless space. She swung her wand back and forth in a protective arc. If she saw a body, she’d race to her vehicle and call dispatch for assistance. Heart pounding, Harper followed the ribbon’s trail.

  A rush of cold air came toward her, but before she turned to address the threat her hands were grabbed from behind and crushed by cold, powerful fingers.

  Fear exploding in her brain, she struggled, kicked and tried to angle her UV wand. The pressure on her hands increased, the pain forcing a cry. She was spun around and her hands were slammed together. Cold fingers wrapped around her wrists and yanked them above her head. Then she was lifted up, the toes of her boots barely scraping the floor. The reinforced wristbands of her uniform protected her from bites, but not from a bone-crushing grip. Despite the pain, she held onto her UV wand.

  “Remember me, Agent Croix?”

  She recognized his silky voice. The old one had caught her. “I meet a lot of bloodsuckers,” she said, dismissing him.

  He hissed, his face so close to hers Harper shivered. “Not like me.”

  The reinforced collar of her uniform protected her neck from his fangs. If the vampire eased his hold, she might have a chance. One hit with the UV beam would do it. The door was only fifteen feet away. All she had to do was reach the light surrounding her vehicle and she was home free.

  “Release me before the entire DSA squad lights up the area.”

&
nbsp; “Not going to happen,” he said, yanking her light wand from her hand. He turned off the beam and tossed the wand aside. “Your coworkers are busy chasing shadows. Cost me dearly, but having you all to myself is worth the coin.”

  When the world economies tanked, the old vampires hoarding metals benefited, but all the gold and silver didn’t help them when the human masses turned against them.

  Harper’s brain worked furiously. She wore a fully loaded weapons belt and had slender wooden stakes hidden in the side pockets of her pants with no way to reach them. “My hands are going numb.”

  “Housekeeping first.”

  He removed her helmet and tossed it across the room, then relieved her of her weapons belt. The bloodsucker was dangling her like a puppet on a string and had stripped her of most of her weapons. Advantage vampire.

  Harper had no idea what he had planned for her, but vampires didn’t pass up fresh human blood. Blood gave them strength and made them horny. Harper groaned. She was going to get sucked and fucked.

  The vampire lowered her to the floor, took each of her hands in his and spun her around. He yanked her arms behind her back.

  She gritted her teeth. The bloodsucker had nearly pulled her arms out of their sockets.

  He crossed her wrists and clamped a large cold hand around them. He was forceful and so damn strong she might as well be cuffed. “I can’t feel my hands.”

  “That’s the least of your worries. Let’s go.”

  Go? A horrible thought bloomed in her brain. If he took her to the Cemetery she’d be torn apart.

  Harper tried to plant her feet, but he pushed her forward. “I can snap your arms like twigs. Don’t tempt me.”

  Keeping a tight hold on her wrists, he marched her into the dark recesses of the building. It was black as pitch, but the vampire had no trouble navigating. She was turned right, then left.

  “Stairs,” he said, warning her seconds before she reached them.

  Twelve. Silently, she counted. He turned to the left. Ten steps later he stopped. Harper had memorized the path, but even if he released her she’d never beat him to her vehicle.

  He spun her around, shoved her up against a wall and manacled a wrist. She struck out, her fist connecting with his body. Pain exploded in her hand and radiated up her arm. The vampire grabbed her other hand and snapped a restraint around her wrist.

  Although she was blind in the darkness, Harper knew he was standing in front of her. Mustering her anger and strength, she raised her right knee and went for his crotch.

  Instead of connecting with his vampire junk, her knee slammed into his hand. His fingers dug into flesh. Pain rocketed through her knee. “Bastard.”

  He tightened his grip. “Try that again and you’ll limp for the rest of your life.”

  The pain was so intense her eyes welled with tears. “Fuck you.”

  “That wasn’t the plan,” he said, in that silky voice. “But I’ll give your request consideration.”

  What was the plan? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

  I’m gonna die.

  Chapter Three

  Sex wasn’t part of his revenge. Egan wanted the agent to pay for killing Noah. Pay in sweat and fear. He knew what she was, what she did night after night against his kind. Still, she tempted him.

  Nostrils quivering, he inhaled, drawing in her amazing scent. The incredible mix of woman and blood pushed all thought of torture out of his mind. A slow sweep of desire moved through him. Egan wanted to taste her, savor the tangy sweetness of her blood.

  Damn the devil, he wanted her. Desire coiled, tighter and tighter, low in his groin.

  He released her knee and placed his hands on her thighs. Kneeling, he slid his palms along the length of her legs to her ankles. The thought of her naked with her long legs wrapped around his waist bloomed in his brain. Ripping off her hated DSA uniform would be fun and with all that anger boiling inside her, Agent Croix would be deliciously hot.

  Egan licked his fangs. Just smelling her kept them extended and sharp.

  Gripping her ankles, Egan pulled her legs apart. He leaned close, his nose a breath away from the juncture of her thighs. Scented heat poured from her body, teasing the cold skin on his face. Raw hunger coiled in his groin. For the first time in a very, long time, Egan was mesmerized.

  He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to lick, kiss, fuck and feed.

  She shifted her hips from side to side, trying to move away from him, but all she did was arouse him more.

  He wanted to hear her cry, but not in pain. What better torture than to bring her to climax? Egan grinned. She’d hate every second of pleasure. She’d hate herself for succumbing.

  Wisely, she didn’t try to kick him as he shackled her ankles. He stood and flicked on a battery-powered lamp. He wanted Croix to see her tormentor.

  She pulled at the restraints, rattling the chains he’d mounted into the walls. He’d set up this room just for her, his prisoner.

  Egan touched his fingertip to her cheek. Her skin was soft and warm. Her face was delicate and her green eyes captivating. Her kick-ass attitude and her spiky hairstyle diminished her natural femininity.

  Lifting her chin in defiance, she glared at him.

  Egan had to admire her. Most humans were whimpering, sobbing fools when confronted by vampires. But not Croix. She was going to make him earn every tear and every sigh.

  The challenge stirred him to touch and to taste. Egan licked his fangs.

  She didn’t bat an eye or utter a word. Her only reaction was to ball her hands into fists.

  Damn, she was going to be hot.

  Egan unfastened the reinforced anti-vampire collar of her uniform jacket, exposing her neck. She didn’t make a sound.

  Slowly, he slid a fingernail along the front of her red jacket, opening the seam. Beneath she wore a form-fitting, red top. The thin material clung to her chest like a second skin. “My favorite color.”

  Hate radiated from her eyes. “Bloodsucker.”

  Chuckling softly at her intended insult, Egan unclasped her pants and pulled them down. Her underwear matched her top, blood red.

  Drawn by her female scent, he kneeled. Egan ran his hands up her thighs, over her belly and around to her buttocks. She was sleek, soft and hot.

  He squeezed her butt cheeks, then slipped a hand between her legs. Desire grabbed his balls. Not yet.

  He rested his hands on her hips and stood, then continued his exploration. He cupped her breasts and buried his face in the crook of her neck. Her skin was soft, lightly scented with lemon. Her breasts were firm, her nipples hard pebbles against his palms. Beneath his right hand, her heart pounded. Fast and furious, her veins pulsed against his lips. The sensation was so tantalizing Egan ached to bite, to suck and to feed. Tasting her would be akin to an orgasm. He ached, fangs tingling and cock throbbing.

  He lifted his head, torn between desire and revenge. She had to atone for Noah. She had to know it was Egan’s choice whether she lived another day. But torture took various forms.

  Croix would likely prefer a quick death to becoming a vampire’s source of nourishment and pleasure, a toy controlled by his will and desire. Egan knew he could make Croix want him. She’d hate every touch, every climax and every sip, but her body would crave him.

  “Are you a virgin, Agent Croix?”

  His question surprised her. Why did he ask? What did he have in mind? “None of your business!”

  She gritted her teeth as the vampire slipped a long, cold finger beneath her bikini underpants. Harper tried to pull away.

  “Don’t resist. I haven’t trimmed my nails.”

  Harper froze. Vampires had sharp nails capable of cutting flesh.

  He slid his finger inside her, slowly pumping in and out. “Hot, so hot.”

  “I’m alive, asshole. What did you expect?”

  He withdrew his finger. “Have you had sex with a vampire?”

  “I don’t fuck dead things.”

  “I’ll be
your first, but that wasn’t exactly what I meant by virgin.”

  Harper realized he wanted to know if she’d been bitten before. She hadn’t, but why tell him anything?

  He touched two fingertips against her throat. “Your heart rate is sky high, and your skin is smooth as silk. So delicate.”

  Fear laced down Harper’s spine. She’d seen the aftermath of a vampire feeding. The images were burned into her memory. Humans sucked dry in minutes with throats torn, arms slashed and breasts bitten. Perspiration trickling down her temples, she hunched her shoulders and lowered her chin.

  “This is going to be fun.” He grasped the hem of her top and pulled it up, exposing her breasts. He slid his thumbs over her nipples. “Vampire fun.”

  “Cold, dead hands. Yeah, it’s a real turn-on for me.”

  His silver eyes flashed red.

  She glared right back at him. “Don’t like being dead?”

  He smiled. Not the shit-eating grin she’d seen before, but a genuine smile that changed his face, made him appear human. Except for the pale skin.

  “I liked being alive,” he said. “But one learns to make adjustments.”

  “One has to learn to suck off the living.”

  “Among other pleasures,” he said, sliding his hands down to the hem of her underwear. “Like body heat.”

  Harper trembled as the vampire pulled down her underwear. He didn’t rip and tear, but slid them slowly down to her knees.

  “You smell delicious.”

  Between the oppressive heat and the fear of what he was going to do, Harper was sweating bullets. Too bad he wasn’t offended by her scent.

  He ran his fingertips up her thighs, over her belly and up to her breasts. His palms were cool against her hot skin. Although his hands were powerful, his touch was tender. He knew how to control his strength, use his fingers to caress.

  He rolled a nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “Does that feel good?”

  It did, but she wasn’t going to tell him.

  He cupped her chin, holding it gently but firmly and brushed his lips over hers. “Lush.”