My Wicked Vampire

by Nina Bangs

  “Ouch.” Vince’s voice?

  Dacian blinked and looked down. He’d tightened his grip until the pot was in danger of shattering. He relaxed. A side glance at Cinn caught her glaring at him. Interesting. She must not be a fan of Sparkle’s nightwear.

  Sparkle draped herself across a chaise. Her black gown slithered and slid, forming interesting patterns of skin and silk.

  Ganymede ignored everyone as he sprawled next to the remote on the couch. “Someone put the damn headphones on me so I can watch the tube while you guys yammer. Oh, and I need my bowl of popcorn. Someone take care of it.”

  Everyone looked at everyone else. No one moved.

  Finally, Sparkle sighed and unwound herself from the chaise. “Men. Helpless babies.” She thought about that. “Or kittens, as the case may be.”

  She somehow managed to get the headphone buds in Ganymede’s ears and then she plunked the popcorn down so hard in front of him that kernels flew in every direction. He ignored her bad humor as he stared unblinking at the screen.

  Cinn dropped onto the couch beside Ganymede. Edge and Dacian sank into twin overstuffed easy chairs. Not the kind of seating arrangement he liked. A straight chair was simpler to spring out of if danger threatened. But Sparkle had stuff piled on the chairs grouped around the small dining table.

  “So why are we here?” Dacian wanted to be gone. He intended to take Cinn back to her room, where the Bain guy would presumably guard her until morning when Edge would take over. He’d taken Edge’s measure and didn’t doubt the guy could handle the goddess. But he didn’t know squat about Bain. He’d find out, though. Soon.

  “I need all three of you together for just a few minutes.” Sparkle had once again arranged her body on the chaise in a lush display of female flesh.

  Only a saint could ignore what Sparkle was, and God knew, Dacian wasn’t a saint. An angry hiss jerked his attention to Ganymede. The cat’s gaze was fixed on him with clear intent to do physical damage.

  Sparkle’s laughter was low and so sexy it would make a man’s teeth hurt, along with other body parts. “Ignore Mede. He doesn’t understand the game, Dacian.”

  “Obviously I don’t either.” Cinn’s voice sounded neutral, but her clenched fists suggested otherwise.

  For some reason, that made Dacian feel good. He wasn’t ready to analyze why.

  Sparkle sighed. “You’ve spent too much time around your plants, Cinn. Everything that happens between a man and woman is a game. And if you’re lucky, you both win.”

  Cinn raised one brow. “Is this the old shallow Sparkle talking, or the new one with depth and character?”

  Sparkle’s smile was a sly lift of her lips. “It’s both, sister. The new me tells the truth. The old me knew the truth. There’s nothing I don’t know about what goes on between a man and a woman.”

  “Be afraid. Be very afraid,” Edge intoned.

  She shifted her attention to Edge. “I don’t know what game you were playing tonight, but stop it. Dacian is my guest as well as a manager, and you can always be replaced.”

  Edge narrowed his eyes. “I can always quit.”

  “But you won’t, and we both know why.”

  Tension hummed between the two, and Dacian watched the interaction. Maybe this was something he could use. He glanced at Ganymede. The cat didn’t seem concerned with the back-and-forth, so sex probably wasn’t involved. Interesting, though.

  “Is that all?” Edge’s voice almost thrummed with anger.

  “Not quite. My sources tell me that Airmid has been to Oregon. She knows Cinn isn’t there, and now she’s picked up the trail and is headed this way. It won’t take her long to find out where Cinn is. So everyone needs to keep a heads-up.”

  Dacian turned to catch Cinn’s expression. She was pale but not panicky. Yet. He’d bet Cinn wasn’t sure if she believed Sparkle. Dacian certainly did.

  “Now, is that all?”

  Sparkle nodded.

  Without another word, Edge rose and left the suite. He didn’t slam the door behind him. Great control. Dacian would’ve slammed the freaking door.

  Chapter Five

  Cinn’s thoughts were rattling around in her brain like air-popped corn gone wild. Did this Airmid goddess really exist? If she did, how had she found out that Cinn wasn’t at home?

  Ohmigod, had someone hurt her family? She fought down the urge to lunge for the phone. Calm down. She only had Sparkle’s word for any of this.

  She looked across at Dacian, who’d just set Vince down on the coffee table. Poor Vince. He had to be picking up on her emotions. Not only that, but she’d separated him from the others.

  And then there was Dacian. What was she going to do about her thoughts of him? Did she fear him? Uh, that would be a yes. Did she trust him? Sort of. At least until he did something that reminded her of what he truly was. But of all the crazies living in the castle, he was the only one she felt she could depend on. Maybe.

  Oh, God, she didn’t know how she felt about anything. “Excuse me, everyone. But I have to call my family.” She stood.

  “Sit down.” Sparkle leaned over and picked up the phone from beside her. She passed it to Edge, who passed it to Cinn. “Call someone in your family now. I bet everyone’s okay. Airmid can be a bitch, but she wouldn’t bother laying waste to your town and family just out of petty revenge. I’m sure she’s happy with the rest of your family. They’ve been good little plant people.”

  Cinn barely listened as she punched in Willow’s number with a finger that refused to stop trembling. She would’ve called her parents, but she didn’t want to upset them if nothing was wrong. She barely waited for her sister’s sleepy hello before speaking. “Are you okay? Is everyone in the family okay?”

  There was puzzled silence for a moment on the other end of the line. “Sure. Shouldn’t they be? I talked to Mom and Dad before I went to bed, and no one’s called to say there were problems. Why?” There was another pause. “I just checked the time. If it’s late here, that means it’s even later in Texas. What’s going on?”

  Okay, no reason to scare her sister. “I had a nightmare. Seemed a little too real for me. Something about a creepy-looking woman asking questions about the family. Nothing like that happened, did it?” She held her breath.

  “Now that you mention it, there was someone asking about you.” Willow sounded more awake now. “A woman stopped at Dad’s greenhouse. Said she was an old friend.” She laughed. “Dad said after he told her you’d moved to Texas, she spent at least an hour hanging around and telling him what he was doing wrong with the plants. Strange thing is, Dad said she really knew her stuff.”

  “Did she give a name?” Cinn had a death grip on the phone.

  “Nope. She just told Dad maybe she’d run across you someday when she was passing through again.”

  “Guess I overreacted to the dream.” Cinn tried to sound embarrassed.

  “No problem, sis. How’s the new job going?”

  “Great. Just great.” I’ve met a vampire, demon, wizard, messenger of Bast, and three cosmic troublemakers all in one day. Oh, and Airmid, the goddess of healing plants, is out to kick my butt. Other than that, hey, everything’s fine. Cinn felt numb. “Look, I’ll let you get back to sleep.”

  She passed the phone back to Sparkle. Cinn would’ve gotten up to return it, but if she made any sudden moves she’d shatter into a thousand shards of pointy nerve endings.

  “Satisfied?” Sparkle looked sympathetic.

  Cinn didn’t believe that look. She took a deep breath and just nodded. Then she tried to calm herself by focusing on the normal. She glanced around the room. Normal, normal, normal, where the hell was normal? Not in this room.

  Every surface, and every object resting or attached to said surface, was dedicated to the sensual. Erotic paintings hung on walls of deep red. Sexy sculptures rested on furniture with carved scenes of sexual acts. The light from a bunch of candles cast shadows that danced along the walls and the scents filling t
he room from the candles made her want to … want to … tackle Dacian, take him to the floor, and commit unspeakable acts of wanton abandon on his yummy body.

  Horrified, she looked at Sparkle. “This is the new you?”

  Sparkle looked sad. “The old me. The new me has ordered a bunch of white paint and Shaker furniture along with some Norman Rockwell prints. They haven’t gotten here yet.”

  “If I have anything to say about it, they never will.“ Ganymede wasn’t as wrapped up in his movie as everyone thought.

  “Have you said everything that needed saying?” Dacian sounded impatient.

  “Not exactly.” For the first time, Sparkle seemed a little nervous. “Bain had a vision. He gets flashes of the future once in a while. Usually there’s not too much detail.”

  Dacian’s gaze sharpened. “This Bain, he was the guy with Ganymede, the one who’ll be guarding Cinn.”

  “A demon.” Cinn felt good about being on the telling end of something for a change.

  Sparkle nodded. “He saw you chained to a post, Dacian. Oh, he didn’t know who you were, because he hadn’t met you yet, but I recognized your description.” She hesitated.

  “Go on.” Dacian’s expression darkened.

  “Another vampire was attacking you. Bain didn’t see any way you could survive.” She looked away. “He didn’t see anything to give a hint of where you were, and he didn’t see the outcome.”

  “In other words, he didn’t see me die.”

  “No.” Sparkle sighed and returned her gaze to him. “The other vampire was ordinary looking—average height, slim, short dark hair, no beard or mustache. Recognize him?”

  “It’s not Stephan. He has long blond hair and a mustache. How accurate are this guy’s visions?” Dacian’s voice was level and calm, but Cinn could sense his intensity, his anger building. So far he hadn’t shown fang, but she figured if he didn’t put a lid on his feelings fast, he could boil over and scald all of them.

  “Umm, pretty good.”

  “How good?”

  “One hundred percent so far.” Sparkle hurried to smooth some of the sharp edges from that average. “But no one ever stays at one hundred percent. I mean, this could be the one he blows. And the future is tricky. We have free will, so we can change the future.”

  Cinn guessed that, like all of them, Sparkle didn’t want to be the cause of Dacian having another episode. Not that Cinn believed ordinary anger would trigger the insane rage she’d seen. But while Sparkle tried to talk the tension out of him, Cinn decided to take a more hands-on approach.

  She got up and went over to stand behind Dacian. Resting her hands on his shoulders, she massaged the tight muscles there. “I’m sure everything will be okay.” Did she believe that? Absolutely not. But she was treating him the same way she treated Vince, sending him peaceful feelings and hoping he picked up on them.

  Slowly, she felt his muscles loosen, and he relaxed a little. She could stop now if she wanted. Only she didn’t want to stop. Something about the firmness of male flesh beneath her kneading fingers felt better than it had any right to feel. Falling into a rhythm, she kept going.

  Sparkle’s anxious expression eased. “I bet if Bain had gotten the big picture instead of just a snippet, he would’ve seen someone rushing to your rescue.”

  Cinn thought Sparkle should probably just shut up.

  Sparkle forged onward. “But you needed to know. Mede’s put everyone on high alert for Airmid and the guy in Bain’s vision. At least your maker hasn’t descended on us yet.”

  Ganymede gave them his attention for a moment. “Been wondering about something, bloodsucker. Were you headed here when I dug you up?”

  Dacian’s expression was shuttered. “I got word that my maker had found Taurin and was going to kill him to get back at me.”

  “I don’t know what the big deal is. If Stephan shows up here, I’ll kill him. Problem solved. And Airmid is a woman. I can handle her.” He went back to his popcorn and movie.

  Cinn waited for Sparkle’s outrage. Nothing. Huh? “Do you always put up with that sexist garbage?”

  Sparkle shrugged. “I let him keep his illusions. Alone in our bed I make the power structure clear to him.” She glanced at Ganymede. A small scary smile played around her lips. “And when he really gets obnoxious, I throw out all his treats.”

  Ganymede’s head whipped around. “Umm, I was only talking about ordinary women, honey-fluff. Not you. You’re in a class all your own, babe.“ He wrapped his chubby cat body protectively around the bowl of popcorn.

  Dacian stood. “Okay, I can’t stand any more of this crap. I need to hunt. I thought I could make it till after I rose, but I can’t. All this bullshit has made me thirsty.” He glanced at Cinn before heading for the door. “And yes, I’m feeding off a few humans.” He stared at her to make sure she got the message. And when he left, he slammed the door behind him.

  Cinn stared blankly at the door. Dacian, thy name is volatile. She’d say he was moody, but that suggested he had a happy moment once in a while. If he did, she hadn’t experienced it yet.

  She didn’t have anything else to say to Sparkle or Ganymede. She guessed she’d go back to her room. The room that was now guarded by a demon. Wow, that was some upgrade. And maybe, just maybe, she could catch a few hours of sleep before the whole merry-go-round started again. Reaching over, she lifted Vince into her lap.

  “I’ll head on back to my room now. Oh, does anyone have a clue what this Airmid looks like?” She was finally ready to admit that the goddess existed and was out for her blood. But why? Everything she did with her plants was for the common good. Fine, so Carla and the rest of her weed warriors might not be too user friendly. But other than those few, her plants did lots of good.

  No one answered.

  As she started to rise, Sparkle waved her back into her seat. “Stay for a little longer. We have some things to discuss.” She stared at Ganymede until he finally looked at her.

  “What?“ He stuck his face into the popcorn bowl and inhaled a mouthful. Probably strengthening himself for whatever Sparkle was about to say.

  “Cinn and I need a few minutes for some girl talk. Why don’t you check up on Dacian? We never told him that he couldn’t hunt inside the park.”

  Mede hissed his unhappiness with Sparkle’s weak ploy to get him out of the suite, but he finally leaped from the couch, padded to the door, stared at it until it opened, and then left. The door swung quietly shut behind him.

  “Now. We’re alone.” Sparkle looked like she wanted to rub her hands together in glee.

  For some reason, this scared Cinn witless. Anything that made Sparkle that happy couldn’t be good for Cinn. “This better be important. I’m tired.”

  Sparkle ignored her comment as she motioned Cinn toward her bedroom. “I have some things I want to show you.”

  Cinn allowed herself to be led. At least for the next two weeks, Sparkle was still her boss. But she stopped thinking about Sparkle for a moment as she took in the erotic impact of the bedroom.

  The bed was a huge four-poster with erotic scenes painted on the headboard. A red velvet bedspread added the final touch. There were more sexually explicit paintings and the prerequisite scented candles. The rugs were black fluffy compromises to the fact that a male shared the room. Hmm. She had to know.

  “Does Ganymede take human form often?” Cinn’s guess was yes, because that big bed would need lots of use to keep it happy.

  Sparkle blinked and then smiled. “Your question surprised me. Not many people ask.” She pursed her lips as though trying to decide how much to tell Cinn. “Several times a week. Some shifters can change instantly. For cosmic troublemakers, it takes a little more time and effort.” She slid the tip of her tongue across her lower lip. “You wouldn’t believe Mede in his golden god form. He owns an island in the Caribbean, and when we spend a few weeks there he doesn’t take his cat form at all.” Her eyes were slitted in ecstasy at the memory. “He’s a totally sex
ual creature, you know.”

  Cinn couldn’t help it; she smiled. Somehow she couldn’t picture the cat with his face in the popcorn bowl as a hot guy. The image just wouldn’t come.

  Sparkle looked like she wasn’t sure if Cinn’s smile should offend her. “Mede doesn’t have sex when he’s in his cat form, so he compensates by eating. A lot.” She shrugged. “You take the good with the bad.”

  Cinn had been so wrapped up in the discussion about Ganymede that she hadn’t noticed what Sparkle was doing. She noticed now. Sparkle had dragged a bunch of clothes out of her closet and piled them on her bed. Uh-oh.

  “I think these will fit you, at least until I get you some of your own.” She glanced at Cinn’s feet. “A size six I’d guess. I’ll have a few pairs for you by nighttime.”

  Horrified, Cinn stared at the clothes. They were…

  “Now that I’m abandoning the shallow life, I’ll have to get a new wardrobe.” Sparkle ran her fingers over a red dress with a short flirty skirt. “You can keep any that fit you. They’re all designer labels.”

  “Thanks. They’re…”

  “I’ll have to start shopping at the”—deep, deep, shudder—“big-box stores.”

  “I really appreciate your offer, but they’re a little more wow than I usually wear.”

  “Sexier? You can say the word.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. I usually just wear jeans and T-shirts when I’m working around my plants.”

  “If you’re going to meet the public, Cinn, then you have to represent the castle appropriately.”

  Cinn stared at a purple top that was just a few pieces of cloth stitched together. “Gee, I can use this while I’m repotting my plants. Wait, no, it’s perfect for fertilizing.”

  Sparkle sighed. “When exactly did you miss the name of this place? It’s the Castle of Dark Dreams. Visitors expect all things sensual.” She paused. “I expect all things sensual.”