“An hour of carrying a decomposing dead body,” muttered Jack. “Yeah, I would not call that fun.”
He crouched low and moved alongside Katie as they approached the door of the warehouse. She listened for a couple of seconds before slipping in through the doorway and turning on her flashlight. Jack scanned the empty interior, frowning at what he saw.
The body was gone. There was a medium-sized blood stain on the floor where they’d left it. Katie swore under her breath and panned her flashlight around the rest of the space.
“Fuck,” she muttered. “Damn it.”
“Do you think the sheriff found it?” asked Jack.
“I would have heard from Bruce, if that was the case,” said Katie. “No, it’s worse than that. Jack, Mira came back and-”
The shadows behind Katie swirled like tufts of smoke, forming into a vaguely human shape. Mira emerged from within them an instant later, pulling Katie into an embrace before she could say or do anything. Jack watched in horror as Mira pressed her lips against Katie’s, surprising her with a sensual kiss that went on for several seconds. Katie blinked once as they parted, and then her eyes fluttered shut as her head fell backward.
Mira gently lowered Katie’s limp form to the ground, letting one finger graze across her lips as she let go. Jack flew forward, trying to tackle her and knock her away from Katie. Mira dodged out of the way using the same shadow magic she’d entered the warehouse with.
“My sweet Jack,” said Mira. “Take a breath. Relax. The girl isn’t dead. Just sleeping, for a time.”
“What the fuck did you do to her?” he shouted. He regained his balance and hurried over to where Katie was on the ground, lifting her head up. She was still warm, and still breathing.
“A simple spell to put her to sleep,” said Mira. “Nothing more. She smells wonderful, but I wouldn’t dream of stealing your first potential thrall out from under you.”
Mira wore a low-cut white gown, along with matching slippers and elbow-length gloves. Her long blonde hair was loose and fell halfway down to her waist. Her eyes looked blood red, and Jack had trouble understanding how he’d ever mistaken them for being blue.
“What do you want?” he asked.
Mira walked toward him slowly. It was hard for Jack to look at her without noticing her body, the way she’d carefully chosen her clothing to put her endowments on display.
“A better question,” she said, “is what you want, Jack.”
“I want to know why you turned me into a vampire in the first place,” he said. “And I want to do whatever it takes to go back to normal.”
Mira let out a laugh that strode the line between being musical and evil.
“Oh, dearest Jack,” she said. “You’re even more single-minded than Peter was. Which is saying a lot.”
“Are you going to answer the question?” he asked.
“Of course,” said Mira. “I turned you into a vampire because I couldn’t resist you. It was the only way to save you, Jack. And to help you understand.”
Jack stared at her, suddenly unsure of whether he was having a conversation with someone grounded in their sanity.
“Because you couldn’t resist me?” he asked.
“You smelled so good,” said Mira. “So much like Peter. It made me a little sad, and yet, so excited at the same time. Part of me wanted to just enthrall you, but it didn’t seem like it would have been what Peter wanted.”
“What do you care about what my grandfather wanted?” asked Jack. “The two of you were enemies.”
Mira laughed again, shaking her head. She gave him a small, elegant smile and shrugged.
“Were we enemies?” she asked. “I’m sure that’s what his apprentice told you. Yes, perhaps we were. But we so much more than that, Jack. I loved Peter, and he hated me. And I hated him, and he loved me.”
“You’re insane,” said Jack.
“There are so very many reasons why I felt the need to give you the Embrace,” said Mira. “You need to understand, Jack. You need to understand me. In the way that Peter never could, in the end.”
The tone she’d spoken the last few words in set Jack on edge.
“Did you kill him?” he asked. “Did you kill my grandfather?”
Peter Masterson’s apparent cause of death had been from cancer. He’d been old enough for nobody to question it, not even Jack, at least until after finding out about his supernatural background.
“What?” Mira looked genuinely insulted, and she shook her head back and forth several times. “Have you been listening to anything I’ve said? Of course I didn’t kill him!”
She glared at Jack and crossed her arms. For some reason, he believed her, though he almost didn’t want to.
“We’re getting off topic,” said Mira, regaining her composure. “My sweet Jack, I gave you a gift, whether you realize it or not. And I want you to explore what it is that you really want.”
She stepped in closer to him. Jack took a step back, but she closed the distance faster than he moved away from her. Mira pressed her body against his, staring into his eyes. She didn’t have a smell in the same way Katie and Ryoko did. She smelled normal, or at least, not intoxicating to his vampiric senses. But she was still beautiful, and the softness of her breasts pressing into his chest stirred a different kind of hunger within him.
“You don’t have to pretend anymore.” Mira caressed his cheek with her hand. “Whatever you want is yours for the taking. You don’t have to ask, and you don’t have to apologize.”
“Stop it,” he whispered.
“Stop what?” She pressed her lips against his. The kiss felt magical, erotic on a level that went beyond what a mouth and tongue should have been capable of. Jack wrapped his arms around her, cupping one of her buttocks in his hand as lust fogged over his senses.
“No!” He pushed her away, regaining his wits. Mira made an offended noise, but her expression was all smiles.
“Peter played hard to get, too, you know,” she said. “All right, then. I’ll make you want me eventually. But for now… is it her?”
Mira walked toward Katie. Jack tensed up, feeling anxious as he watched the beautiful vampire approaching his childhood friend.
“Stay back,” said Jack.
“It is, isn’t it?” asked Mira. “And she’s probably been the one helping you. How many times have you bitten her so far, Jack?”
“Shut up,” he said.
“Would you stop me if I tried to bite her?” asked Mira.
Jack charged forward in answer to her. He slammed his hands against Mira’s shoulders and pushed her back with as much strength as he could muster. She flew through the air, but before hitting against the warehouse’s wall, her body dissolved into darkness again, reforming in a burst of shadows and smoke in the periphery of Jack’s vision.
He rushed at her. Mira had a wicked smile on her face, and her eyes briefly flashed crimson as half a dozen Spectral Hand tendrils extended outward from her body, seizing him by his arms and legs and lifting him into the air. They held him aloft like the appendages of a dark octopus, swimming through a cloud of its own ink.
“You have no idea what power is, Jack,” said Mira. “You’re a moth that’s drawn too near to the flame.”
“If you touch Katie, I swear to god I’ll kill you!” he hissed.
“If I touch Katie?” Mira laughed. “That seems to imply that you’ll spare my life if I leave her alone. I thought you came out tonight to put an end to your sinister broodmother?”
Slowly, Mira began to use her tendrils to reel Jack in, still holding him completely at her mercy. She smiled when he came within a few inches of her, and planted a quick, teasing kiss on his lips.
“You can’t kill me,” she said. “And I’m not sure if you even would, if you could. You’re like Peter.”
She kissed him again, pushing her tongue into his mouth this time. Her hand slid across his chest, and then down his pants. Jack groaned as he felt her gentle fingers begin to
caress him. She knew exactly what to do with her hand, her perfect, soft, stroking hand.
“Stop it,” said Jack. It was hard to put force into his words. Her touch was like magic to him, and he could only wonder if that was part of her connection to him as the one who’d given him the Embrace.
“You don’t want me to stop,” said Mira. “You want me to push you to your brink. You want me to keep going until it feels too good for you to stand, and then keep going, even still.”
She ran her thumb over the tip of his shaft and gave it a teasing squeeze that sent a burst of delicious pleasure coursing through him. He struggled against her tendrils, but it was halfhearted. Mira continued stroking, and Jack shivered and writhed from the intensity of it. She was a cruel goddess, torturing him with a mean, perfect pleasure.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to have you as a part of my life,” she whispered.
He wished he could let himself enjoy it, but he couldn’t. Jack forced himself to focus, reaching out for his blood magic. He pulled from the ambient pulse of his blood essence to cast Spectral Hand, extending a dark tendril forward in a forceful blow.
It was basically as though he’d grown an extra arm from his chest, and he used it for a singular, powerful punch. The tendril struck Mira and knocked her back, freeing him from her embrace. She let out a surprised squeal and clutched at her stomach, dropping down onto one knee.
“That hurt!” she shouted. “You have no manners at all!”
He stared, dumbfounded, as Mira turned and left the warehouse. He followed her to the door and watched as she slowly made her way down the road, her thin white gown fluttering in the warm night breeze.
CHAPTER 17
Jack hurried over to Katie, first making sure that she was still alive and breathing. He shook her shoulder and called her name several times, but didn’t manage to wake her up.
He wasn’t sure if Mira’s sleep spell would wear off on its own, or if it was a form of magic that could only be broken by the caster. As easy as it would have been to take her back to the mansion and hope for the best, he didn’t feel comfortable taking that risk.
He carried her over to a corner of the warehouse, lying her down behind an old shelf, where she would at least be hidden from anyone who stumbled across the scene. Jack squeezed her hand before leaving, feeling more worried than he’d felt in a very long time.
He’d been expecting Mira to be long gone by the time he managed to give pursuit, but she wasn’t. Jack charged after her, testing the limits of how fast his body could move as a vampire. And Mira let him catch up.
Each time he’d close on her and throw himself into a strike or tackle, Mira would vanish into the darkness, reappearing further down the road. It was like a game of tag powered by dark magic, and Jack felt like he was always a step behind.
She was leading him somewhere. He knew that he was basically placing himself into her power, but his only other alternative would be a premature retreat. Jack kept chasing Mira even as she entered the outskirts of Lesser Town, shifting their game into a populated playground.
The town was quiet. It was a Thursday night, and though there were a few people out, most had already retired to their homes. Mira ran ahead of him with loping steps, dodging into a backyard, and then leaping over a fence separating the neighboring property. Jack followed after her, cursing the loudness of his footsteps in comparison to the silent speed she moved with. He attempted the jump and made it halfway, grabbing the top of the fence with his arms and tumbling over it.
She’d disappeared by the time he landed on the other side. Jack spotted her as he approached the town’s center. She was in an alleyway, and this time, she didn’t dissolve into shadows as he closed the distance between them.
“Why are you even bothering?” she asked. “Perhaps one day you’ll have the resolve to kill me, but not now. Not yet.”
Jack glared at her and made no move to attack.
“I know this is a game to you,” he said. “Whatever your plan is, it won’t work.”
“It already has.” Mira arched her back, running her hands across the smooth fabric of her gown like a grooming cat. “I have what I wanted. From the moment you first invited me inside Peter’s mansion, I’ve had exactly what I wanted.”
“If that was the case, you wouldn’t bother leading me around like this,” he replied.
“Oh, but of course I would!” Mira let out a single, melodious laugh. “We’re having so much fun. And we’ll be able to do this time and time again.”
Footsteps came from down the street, along with a feminine voice having a one-sided conversation. Jack turned to glance at whoever was approaching, and in that instant, Mira seized him with her tendrils, holding him securely in place and also covering his mouth, so he couldn’t shout out.
“Shhh…” whispered Mira. “We need to watch and see what happens.”
She moved to the mouth of the alley, carrying Jack with her using her blood magic bonds. A girl was walking past them, absorbed in a conversation on her cell phone. Ahead of her, a man and a woman in dark clothing had stepped out from around the corner. The man had a knife in his hand, and moonlight gleamed of its polished blade.
“I’ve been observing these two for a few nights, now,” said Mira. Her Spectral Hand tendrils ran over Jack’s body as they talked, caressing him and exploring the inside of his leather duster. “They have a pattern, you see. And they’re perfect for us.”
The girl on the cell phone only seemed to notice the man and the woman once it was already too late. She took a stumbling step back, putting her cell phone into her purse. The man rushed forward, grabbing her wrist and covering her mouth to silence the last half of her scream.
“Whatchu got in your purse, bitch?” asked the woman.
“She’s got a phone, at least,” said the man. “And some titties on her.”
He groped one of the girl’s breasts, and she let out a terrified whimper.
“I’m going to let you go, Jack,” whispered Mira. “It’s up to you what happens next.”
He felt Mira’s tendrils let go of him, and immediately stepped out into the street. The man was trying to pull the girl’s pants down, and the woman was busy rifling through her wallet.
“Stop it,” said Jack. “Now.”
“Who the fuck are you?” shouted the man.
“Someone who you don’t want to mess with,” he said.
The male mugger roughly threw the girl to the ground and pointed his knife in Jack’s direction.
“You’ll take off if you know what’s good for you,” said the mugger. “This is a private matter.”
Jack took another step forward. The mugger acted as though he was conferring with his female accomplice, but Jack could sense what he was preparing to do from the way his fingers visibly tightened around the handle of the knife.
The mugger rushed forward in a blur of motion, faster than Jack had been expecting. He spun out of the way, but not fast enough to miss the blade completely. His duster shrugged off the slash as though it were the whip of a spry tree branch, and it was easy for him to follow up from there.
Jack used his blood magic, summoning a Spectral Hand tendril to close over the knife. He lifted the mugger’s arm into the air and threw two punches into the man’s unguarded body. One struck the man’s stomach, and the other hit his chin. He crumpled to the ground in a fit of spastic coughs.
The woman who’d been his partner in the mugging let out a surprised shout as Jack turned his attention to her. She’d been holding the girl, but hurriedly pushed her away. The girl took off down the street.
“Fine,” said the woman, in a petulant voice. “We learned our lesson. We’ll go.”
She walked over to the male mugger and started to help him to his feet. Jack had the knife pinned under his foot. He frowned, unsure whether this was the outcome he wanted.
Mira appeared next to him, entrapping both of the muggers with her tendrils and stretching their limbs securely
out to the side. They both screamed, but Mira covered their mouths, just like she’d done with Jack before.
“This is the fun part,” Mira purred. “I was so excited when I noticed that one of these miscreants was female. She’s for you, Jack.”
Jack felt a confusing mixture of emotions as he watched Mira closing in on the male mugger. He was shivering and wouldn’t meet her gaze. Mira ran a finger over his cheek and brought her lips in close to his, almost kissing him.
She shifted her mouth at the last second, sinking her fangs into the man’s neck instead. His face contorted in pain. No, thought Jack. In pleasure. The man let out a soundless scream, his mouth no longer needing to be covered by one of Mira’s tendrils.
He could smell the man’s blood. It made his throat feel dry and itchy, and it made him aware of the female mugger’s even more enticing scent. She was staring at her partner with a horrified expression on her face. She looked from the man, to Mira, to Jack, only slowly connecting the dots and realizing that fate had something similar in store for her.
Mira pulled back from the man after another few seconds of drinking his blood. She licked her lips slowly, adjusting her gown, which had slid a little further downward than where it was supposed to be. She pressed herself against Jack, totally ignoring the tendrils that were still sprouting from her shoulders and back, holding the criminals in place.
“Have a drink,” she whispered. “There is nothing better than this, Jack. And we can enjoy each other for the rest of the night, rather than having to settle for them.”
Mira kissed him, pushing her tongue into his mouth and undulating against him like a cat in heat. Jack felt drawn into the moment, despite himself. He palmed one of her big breasts, his arousal getting the better of him. Mira pulled back from the kiss after a few seconds, glancing in the female mugger’s direction.
The woman was whimpering, and she shied away as much as her blood magic bonds would allow as Jack took a step in her direction. He was surprised by how enticing her smell was, a mixture of musky femininity and sweet peaches. It didn’t seem like it should belong to someone so barren of morality. And it made Jack want to bite her even more.
Blood Mage (Dark Impulse Book 1) Page 9
