The Nightlife Moscow (Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Suspense) (The Nightlife Series Book 5)

by Travis Luedke

  “I’ll try. No promises.” His hand was already sliding down past the elastic band of her pajamas, but not as fast as she wanted. He took his time gliding his fingers along the edge of her pants.

  Breathing hard again, she was so damn hot for him her clothes had become stifling. She’d never been this aroused by another man. Being in his presence was a constant attraction that pushed her self-control to the limit. Her fingers raced down his chest undoing the buttons of his shirt, working toward the prize.

  He slipped his fingers between her legs and found her wet and ready. One finger, then two. She purred with the lovely push of his gentle quest. Finally, she undid the last button on his pants and freed that Lochness monster. Her eager hands stroked him, squeezing and tugging. She wanted it all, now.

  He emitted a low growl, and her wolf answered him with a growl of its own. She pulled on his cock while her right hand pulled him down onto her. She needed all of him. His lips, his tongue, his teeth, his whole body. His mouth crushed her with an assault of kisses. She suckled his hot tongue and ground her hot wet pussy up into his fingers, trying to get more of everything.

  Something about his kiss tasted different … tangy. Then she realized his fangs had nipped her lip accidentally, and he was lapping at the cut. Tiny sparkles of wondrous warmth infused her mouth … his venom. She needed the full monty. “Bite me now!”

  He pulled away, a mischievous grin on his face. “Wait for it.” He stood up and stripped off his jacket and shirt then pulled down his black pants and stepped out of them. Last to go was the burgundy red boxer shorts, more of the designer clothing that Michelle was always buying him. He stood before her in all his pale, naked glory. Katya loved looking at him, her very own Calvin Klein underwear model.

  With the last bit of her failing patience she stripped her panties and pajama bottoms, and ripped off her shirt. Lucky she hadn’t been wearing a bra. Aaron’s devouring gaze combed the length of her and she thought his erection somehow got a little bit harder. Moving with silent cat-like grace he slid back up on top of her. His sculpted thighs settled between her legs and spread her wide.

  Though they were both shivering, she knew the intensity of sex with Aaron, and before long they’d both be hot and sweaty. He leaned into a soft kiss with a quiet murmur on his lips. “Thank you.”

  She didn’t know why he was thanking her, but it didn’t matter as he filled her aching need with his thick, hard gratitude. That’s real gratitude, and he gave it all to her, sliding in until he hit bottom.

  “You’re welcome and thank you too … Bloody hell!” She could hardly breathe or speak, so full of his cock.

  His hypnotic vampire eyes pierced her soul as he pulled out and shoved back in over and over. She wondered if he was seeing the whole truth of how she felt about him … if she even knew her own feelings anymore. She had never needed anyone or anything like she needed Aaron, but was it something more between them? She couldn’t see past the need, the deliciously hard sex, to get a sense of whether her emotions were genuine, or simply a reaction to spending far too much time in the company of the seductive incubus planted firmly inside her.

  Her hands gripped his tight, flexing ass as he fucked her harder, faster, then even harder, and somehow even faster …

  Like an electric heated sex machine, his muscular body had become almost too hot to touch, warming her to the very core. It built inside her with each of his inhumanly powerful strokes into her sopping wet pussy, an orgasm to beat all orgasms. He was doing it again, that sex-magic-healing thing he’d done to her so many times in London when he saved her life.

  Grunting and growling and grasping at every part of him, he plowed her ever upwards to a steep cresting wave of joy. At the top, what had to be the peak of the world, she looked into his eyes and saw a reflection of what was in her heart.

  Love. Pure, simple, uncomplicated, love.

  “Aaron, please … now.”

  His teeth dived into her neck and she launched off the face of the earth into an orbit of sheer heavenly bliss. Gentleman that he was, he did her the honor of holding his hand over her mouth as she screamed her throat raw.

  * * * *

  Aaron slept in fits through the day, cuddling nude with Katya beneath the covers in their makeshift bedroom. His wolf-girl had a higher-than-normal body temperature, so he made sure to stay wrapped around her, his own personal heat blanket. Somewhere in his sexually sated dreams, the sound of a mournful howl became loud and clear. Crashing and banging soon followed. Aaron awoke to Katya pushing him aside as she scrambled into her pajamas.

  Aaron’s acute hearing caught more growls, accompanied by a yip of pain, like a dog being kicked. Going with Katya’s urgency, Aaron slipped on his pants and coat and raced out into the open warehouse, straight for the noise.

  Michelle slammed backwards through the door of her bedroom, butt naked, her snarling face turned towards the darkness of her room. Her razor claws were splayed out wide, ready to slice and dice. She backed away quickly, in a crouch, poised to murder whatever was inside her room.

  A shiny black wolf padded out of the room growling. Its tongue reached up to clean the blood off a gaping wound on its snout. She must have whacked it good.

  “Loups-garous putain!” Fucking werewolves.

  Ivan ran up on her and she turned her claws on him, slashing through the air with lethal force, a hair away from carving his face off. “Don’t touch me!”

  Ivan backpedaled quickly.

  Without another thought Aaron moved in and embraced Michelle. “It’s okay. Please calm down, Michelle. I’m here. It’s okay. It’s just Nikolay. He needed to change, to heal.”

  She was shaking, ready to strike anyone in reach, but he held her tight. Razor talons flexed for action, she leaned into Aaron, absorbing all his comfort. “Nikolay? Are you sure?”

  She had once faced all four wolves in combat, and barely survived the ordeal. Aaron read her feral animalistic need to kill in her unshielded mind. Waking up to a wolf at her bedside had brought out her basest instincts, along with the memories of that dark time in her life when she was little more than a beast roaming the countryside of France, killing Germans indiscriminately, and fighting off a wolf pack all alone.

  The wolf that faced her now whined and groaned, then nodded its head, acknowledging that yes indeed, he was Nikolay. The creature looked back and forth from Aaron to Michelle, licked more blood off its snout, and slowly stepped up to Michelle. A higher pitched whine signaled an unmistakable wolfish apology. Then it trotted around them and its long pink tongue flicked out and licked the crack of her ass.

  “Merde!”

  The wolf danced out of reach and narrowly escaped the lethal swipe of Michelle’s claws. It smiled at her, its huge tongue wagging in a tease.

  Trying hard to suppress his laughter, Aaron held onto Michelle tightly before she attacked the wolf again. Chuckling, he slipped out of his coat and wrapped it around his lover’s naked body.

  Ivan and Anatoly stood several feet away with shit-eating grins as they caught an eyeful of Aaron’s naked vampire lover. From their leering faces, Aaron suspected they’d leap at the opportunity to get in a few licks of their own.

  “You’ve seen quite enough. Give a girl some privacy!” Katya kicked the wolf in the rump and it turned on her with a yelp and a low growl of menace. “Get! Now!” The wolf slinked away, never once taking its eyes off Katya.

  Aaron guided Michelle back into the bedroom and shut the door. He held her shivering body tight in his grip and sat her down on the bed. “Let’s get you some clothes.” His lover didn’t say another word beyond a nod. She put on the jeans and sweater he handed her from her luggage.

  Through the open ceiling of the cubicle, Aaron heard Ivan call out to the wolf. “Nikolay, come. I have steaks.” The slurpy growls of quickly devoured meat filtered through the warehouse.

  Michelle’s hands shook as she zipped up a pair of black leather boots over her jeans. He’d never seen her look
so vulnerable. “They won’t hurt us, Michelle. We can trust them.” Her emerald eyes held his for a moment and then darted away, embarrassed. He stepped in to take her hands and kissed her on the cheek. “Are you sure you can do this? Do you need more time to recover?”

  She squeezed his hands in her strong, lethal grip. “I am hungry, Aaron. Tonight we hunt and feast on our enemies. Tomorrow we leave this godforsaken city.”

  She looked thin, almost gaunt. The damn wolves had been starving her for too many nights. Aaron felt sorry for the next guy who got in her way – Michelle would probably drain him.

  * * * *

  Chapter 10

  Michelle stood quietly to one side of the open area of the warehouse and watched the wolves carefully. They chatted among themselves as they assembled guns and combat gear laid out on a large conference table. Every time Anatoly whispered and glanced her way, she knew he was up to something and it involved her. She vaguely recalled that she had once trusted Ivan and Katya, but now, the constant threat of wolves surrounding her pushed her to the edge of violence. She’d never let these wicked beasts out of her sight again.

  Waking up to a howling black animal had brought back an avalanche of memories better left buried in her dark past. The gut-wrenching fear of being eaten alive flowed through her veins once again. Snapping jaws latched onto her arms and legs, barking muzzles glistened with her blood, and the remembered agony of being torn to shreds by their grinding jaws made her teeth drop down, ready to shred flesh and kill her enemies.

  These men had tried to eat her, had partaken of her flesh, and she would not soon forget. If not for Urvashi’s conviction that Dmitri intended to sell vampire’s venom to the world, Michelle would drag Aaron from this place right now.

  Michelle’s survival instincts had kept her alive for near a century, at the price of great loneliness. Though she loved Aaron deeply and couldn’t stand the thought of being apart from him, living in the company of wolves was destroying her sanity.

  Aaron stayed close at her side, watching her. His concern showed clearly on his face. He was probably digging through her mind, seeing how she felt. If so, he would know that soon, wolves and vampires must part ways … or else.

  He directed her over to a dusty old couch in what passed for a living room in this decrepit hovel. He was trying to ‘manage’ her. How sweet. Only at the lowest point of her life, during WWII, had she been forced to live in a hellhole like this. Every second spent in this industrial wasteland grated on her soul.

  Aaron brushed his fingers across her cheek and turned her away from the wolves to face him. “It’s only temporary.”

  Oui, reading her mind once again.

  She caught Ivan staring at her, a strange look of apology on his face. The old wolf must have realized his mistake in leaving her to wake up next to Nikolay. She could almost forgive him. Almost.

  Though she got frisky with Ivan, enjoyed his powerful body and easy humor, that intimacy was now over. She assessed the room for exits, plotting how many of them she could kill to clear a path to her escape. One more threatening move in her direction, and she was gone. Anything in her way would be cut to pieces.

  Their dog scent floated thick in her nostrils. She sniffed herself. “I smell like animal. Is disgusting.”

  Aaron hugged her tighter and glanced back to Katya. Michelle followed his gaze and the bloodslave returned Michelle’s stare. Michelle gave the wolf-girl the full assault of her direct eye contact. A smug satisfaction filled her at seeing Katya look away, unsettled. From the moment Michelle realized what Aaron had done to Katya, she knew taking a wolf as bloodslave was a huge mistake, far worse than his infatuation with Anastasia in Las Vegas. Dealing with bloodslaves was one thing, but Michelle had no desire to be involved with these wolves or dance around Katya’s acceptance issues.

  Aaron kissed Michelle on the cheek. “Are you sure you’re up for this? We’re going after Dmitri tonight. I need you focused on the enemy. The wolves are not our enemy.”

  If he had survived being eaten alive by wolves, he would not speak with such assurance.

  She delved into the eyes of the man she loved, wishing there was some way to go back in time, to New York, to the time when Aaron was simply her lover, under her control, and so much easier to deal with. He had become a complex creature now, much more than a man, and far more dangerous to her heart.

  In the debate of love versus survival, Michelle knew she’d stand at Aaron’s side no matter what, wolves or no wolves. “I am focused, on you. Don’t worry, Aaron. Je t'aime pour toujours et à jamais – I’ll love you forever.” She glanced at the wolves. “I endure their company, for you. But I don’t have to like it.”

  Aaron followed her eyes towards Ivan and gang. “You weren’t complaining about waking up to Katya in your bed.” His searching gaze returned to her, with an uncharacteristic hard look. “You need to understand that Katya’s going to be with us, indefinitely.”

  Michelle leaned in close to speak low against his ear and licked her lips. “She tastes good, is true.”

  Aaron snickered. “She’s more than just food, Michelle. You know that.”

  “Not to me.”

  * * * *

  Chapter 11

  Urvashi watched Ivan adjust Aaron’s bulletproof vest. She marveled at how the last hundred years of technological advances had transformed men into formidable warriors. When she first laid eyes on the great iron battleships of the 1940’s she knew a turning point had been reached in human history. Technology and its applications would determine man’s destiny. Guns had changed the world dramatically. She had never before feared man with his spears, arrows and swords. Guns made all the difference. In the course of taking down Dimitri and all his goons, a protective vest might be wise. Why not gear up like everyone else?

  Aaron caught her watching him and asked, “Aren’t you wearing armor?”

  The curious look in his eye struck her as a challenge. The boy wanted to test her mettle. She sensed his desire to see what she could do, find her limits. Perhaps she might learn those limits for herself. She had rarely tested her abilities to the point of failure.

  She shook her head and winked at him. Aaron laughed.

  She wondered at the design of fate for placing this boy in her path. She had shied away from Dmitri decades ago, disgusted with the dark corruption of his soul. In her vast experience, supernatural aberrations like vampires and shapeshifters often pursued dark, wicked lives of self-indulgence, seldom striving for greatness or enlightenment. Yet here and now, this pack, and this brash young man she held in blood-bond, presented an unusual combination. Powerful, gifted supernatural creatures who cared about humanity. A rarity that intrigued her.

  She had kept tabs on this wolf pack for a very long time, watching them drift back and forth across Europe. As mercenaries, they took jobs when it suited them, and used their unique abilities to charge into the thick of battle, fearless. They were nothing like Dmitri or the other monsters she had known over the centuries.

  She liked these wolves, with their simple lifestyle and common decency. She prayed to gods she no longer believed in that she did not lead them all to their deaths.

  “Listen, these are the ground rules we must consider at all times.” She addressed the whole pack, and Aaron. “I have arranged some help to get us into Dmitri’s compound without alerting his security forces. There is a standing agreement between Dmitri and the Moscow police. They will not enter his compound. He runs his own army of security.”

  She pegged each of the combatants with a direct look, ensuring she had their attention. “Small arms fire should be fine. Police will not attempt to gain entry or interfere unless there are major explosions.” She looked to Ivan and caught a smirk from him. “I mean it Ivan. We must mitigate the noise level of this invasion if we are to take control of Dmitri’s compound without police interference.”

  * * * *

  Aaron pulled his heavy black leather coat over the black hardshell body arm
or and tactical gear that Ivan had fitted him in from head to toe. He turned to catch Michelle hissing at Ivan. “Don’t touch me!” She grabbed Ivan’s wrist and dug her claws in, a ferocious snarl on her lips.

  Ivan jerked out of her grip and backed away, hands in the air. “Trying to help.” He watched her warily, confusion and frustration crossing his features. The wolf didn’t understand that the flirtatious, sexy woman he’d played with the night before had been replaced by his worst nightmare.

  Aaron slipped his arm around Michelle and held her against him in a tight, loving hug. His lips brushed against her ear in a whisper. “Calm down. No one here will hurt you.” He looked to Urvashi for help. He’d never seen Michelle like this, so jumpy and vicious. “Let me help you with this.”

  Michelle stilled under Aaron’s hands as he attempted to adjust the straps on the oversized body armor. It wasn’t exactly made for her petite frame, but considering the situation, they needed all the protection they could get. He’d seen Michelle shot up four times in only four months. The woman attracted bullets quicker than a fucking magnet.

  Urvashi watched Aaron struggling with Michelle’s gear and nodded to her manservant Renault, a silent signal. The short man dressed in his well-fitted body armor looked at Aaron and Michelle with an irritated squint. He snubbed his nose toward Aaron, “He’s got it covered.”

  Urvashi stared at him without a word, a look that clearly communicated what she wanted.

  “Vampire imbécile.” Cursing, Renault walked up to Michelle and pushed Aaron’s hands away from her. “Ne bouge pas, I will fix it.”

  The smug little French creep ran his hands all over Michelle’s body, heedless of the intimate parts he fondled. He swatted Michelle on the ass when he finished, and had to duck as the razor edges of her claws missed his eyes by a mere millimeter.