by Tamsin Baker
She opened the wardrobe and surveyed the array of dark dresses. There was no rule about what the women wore. It was what the public expected, but conversation with Alain still played in her mind. The relief his discovery of her true identity had brought to her still lingered, and black just didn’t feel right.
She reached for a red cocktail dress that she’d bought on a whim, but never worn. As she zipped the figure-hugging bodice and smoothed the skirt over her hips, for the first time since she’d started passing herself off as a vampire, Katrine felt like a fraud.
She’d come to accept it as just a job. That she wasn’t hurting anyone by playing a part. But since Alain had outed her, a stronger awareness that although this was the world she’d grown up in, the world she knew best, it wasn’t truly her world.
She looped her pearls and vial around her neck, holding the tiny glass bottle in her hand. Lisette had given it to her on her thirteenth birthday. When she’d told her about her mother’s killing.
And now there’d been another killing.
A shiver skittered down her spine. Maybe her early morning walks through the streets weren’t such a good idea for the moment.
But she hadn’t been alone the last time.
She’d see Lucien again tonight. Her two lives were converging at a speed she couldn’t have anticipated.
She closed the wardrobe door on the row of black dresses.
CHAPTER 9
Lisette had hovered nearby as Katrine had greeted Lucien after her number and had mouthed “goodnight” as they left.
‘Walk with me, Katrine.’ Lucien held out his arm for her to take. ‘I need to tell you something.’
‘About your special place? Is that where we’re going?’
‘We might. It’s all related.’
‘It’s all very mysterious.’
Lucien put his other hand on hers. ‘You, Katrine, have your own share of mystery.’
If he wanted to keep her intrigued, he was succeeding. They arrived at a small café that wasn’t particularly crowded, and he guided her inside to a table in the corner. He pulled out her chair and took the one that put his back to the room.
‘This is lovely.’ She had a definite soft spot for old-style Parisian décor with its gilt and soft lighting.
‘It is, and it hasn’t changed over the decades.’
‘So it’s a favorite place? Hang on, decades? You don’t look much older than me.’ Katrine moved closer to peer at his face. His skin was a little on the pale side, but flawless. ‘Unless you’ve had work done?’
Lucien sat back in his seat and shook his head without a hint of a smile, and she was at a loss as to what had suddenly changed the mood.
‘I believe I can trust you, Katrine.’
‘Okay.’ She hoped he wasn’t going to admit he was a massive vampire groupie after all.
His mouth was curving into a smile. Something he’d not done much of in their time together, but she liked his seriousness, his maturity. The way that mouth had felt on hers.
But then his lips stretched a little further than just a smile and Katrine watched in disbelief as his two upper canines descended into fangs.
Damn, he was a vampire groupie.
‘Very impressive.’ But so very disappointing, and confusing. The admittedly convincing party trick didn’t gel with the man who’d taken her to the carousel.
‘They’re real, Katrine. I’m real. And I know you’re not.’
An iron fist gripped her gut. Words scrambled to form coherent thoughts in her mind. Thankfully Lucien broke her stunned silence.
‘A lot to take in, I know.’
‘But how?’ was all she could come up with. How, in post-contagion world, how could Lucien even exist?
‘I don’t know. When the infection hit, I waited to die like all the other males, but I didn’t. I went into seclusion while the females organized themselves and mediated a reconciliation with the humans. I didn’t know how my existence would be taken by either side, so I’ve never made myself known.’
‘Until now.’ Katrine waved at a nearby waitress. She needed a drink. ‘Why now?’
Lucien smiled. No fangs this time. ‘I feel I can trust you, Katrine. You understand the vampire world, and you have your own secret.’
‘Not any longer apparently.’ First Alain, and now Lucien. The secret that she’d held tight around her was slowly unraveled.
‘The first time I saw you I could hear your heartbeat. Feel it. Then watching you dance, the story, I was more than a little intrigued.’
Her thoughts raced like a dog chasing its tail. She passed herself off as vampire. He passed himself off as human. It sounded like the plot to a bizarre movie.
‘It’s been a long and solitary existence, Katrine, never being able to be myself. I felt my secret would be safe with you.’
‘A weight lifted?’
Lucien nodded and Katrine drew in a quiet breath when the tiniest bead of red appeared in the corner of his eye. Blood. A tear.
Wetness welled behind her own eyes. Sharing themselves in this way was more intimate than the kiss they’d shared.
Katrine reached out to cover his hand with hers as the waitress finally brought her drink. He spread his fingers so she could interlace hers. Now that she had reason to notice, Katrine was conscious of the coolness of Lucien’s skin against her palm and wondered how it would feel to have the length of his cool, naked body against hers. How would his hard, cool cock feel inside her.
‘Your little bombshell puts a whole other light on your special place. Are you still going to show me?’
‘I would like that very much.’
***
There was little passing traffic on the tree-lined street, but she’d never been worried about being out at this hour and felt safe in Lucien’s company.
‘We’re almost there,’ he said, as they passed an imposing pair of wrought iron gates, beyond which lay a vast, dark and eerie cemetery.
Katrine stopped and withdrew her arm from his.
The place where her mother had been killed. And another woman just the other night.
Was she a total idiot? Her feet felt welded to the ground.
Trust her fight or flight mode to default to fight. She couldn’t run if her life depended on it. And maybe it still did. She was in no position to fight either. Lucien was a vampire, apparently holed up in a cemetery where there’d been a vampire murder. Her blood ran a little cold. Blood he might want to drain from her body. Like the body Alain had seen.
Katrine backed away. How far back to the road which had more light and more people?
Her heart thumped like jackhammer against her chest as she tried to control her erratic breathing and think straight, but all that raced through her mind was that the killer was a vampire.
‘Katrine? Your heart is racing.’
It was, and that’s exactly how she felt. Out of all the vampires in Paris, had she lucked out and ended up at the scene of the crime with the killer?
Ridiculous. She finally managed to draw some deep breaths. She either trusted Lucien, or she didn’t.
‘Sorry.’ She moved back closer to him again. ‘There was a murder here the other night.’
‘In the cemetery?’
Katrine nodded. ‘Committed by a vampire.’ She had no guilt in sharing the confidential information.
‘You don’t think I …’
‘No.’ She cut him off. ‘No.’
Lucien took her hand and squeezed it. ‘You know what they’d think if they knew about me.’
‘They?’
‘The police.’
‘There’s no need for them to know. They have no reason to even suspect you exist.’ But she understood his fear. Remnants of old prejudices too often played out in over reaction and violence.
‘You still want to come?’
‘Absolutely. I don’t think you can shock or surprise me any more than you already have tonight.’ She could put thoughts of her mother and the othe
r poor woman aside, even though she was at a cemetery. With a vampire. Sometimes there as no avoiding clichés.
Lucien took her arm and they walked along the perimeter until they came to a narrow iron gate inset into the wall. He pushed against it and it opened with a raspy screech. He guided her through and closed it behind them.
‘This way.’ He took her hand again and led her further along a path that wound through the grave sites. Some headstones loomed, some crouched, in the shadows of the trees. Chipped angels watched over the long-neglected dead and Katrine found it strangely beautiful.
‘Here.’ Lucien stopped them at a non-descript, crumbling cross half hidden by thick shrubbery.
What made this particular spot different to any other part of the cemetery. Were the indecipherable remnants of an inscription on the cross of some significance to Lucien?
Katrine looked closer, brushing her fingers over the rough indentations. ‘Is this your family?’
‘No. This is my home.’ He knelt down and pushed aside the shrubbery next to the cross, revealing a metal circle set into the ground. ‘Down there.’
***
‘Ooookay.’ Katrine’s skepticism didn’t surprise Lucien. After what he’d thrown at her tonight. ’And what exactly is down there?’
‘The catacombs.’
‘Here?’
‘Yes. This leads to a section that’s not open to the public. This is home.’
Katrine looked down at the circle in the ground.
‘This is where my friends and I came for secret parties. Then it became where we were turned.’ Thankfully the screams of terror and fear from that night had long since faded in his memory.
‘Once the craziness of the contagion settled, I came back here.’ His life in a nutshell. The very isolation and bleakness of where he called home reflected the way he now existed.
Katrine knelt in the tangle of weeds and grass that surrounded the metal disc. ‘What’s down there?’
‘Tunnels. Caverns. Safety.’ He knelt down beside her. ‘Loneliness.’
His only memories over the centuries were of fleeing, meaningless trysts. Clever banter, sensual words to get what he needed. Having a meaningful connection, had become fantasy. Something he’d given up even thinking about. Until now.
‘Will you come with me?’
She nodded and Lucien pulled on the handle, lifting the disc onto the grass. the dark nothingness of the narrow entrance gaped like a hungry mouth.
‘Yes. Please.’ Growing up she’d learned a little of vampire history, but Lucien still lived the way all vampires had been forced to for centuries. She leaned forward and brushed her mouth over his. ‘Show me your world, Lucien.’
***
He moved to the edge of the entrance, swinging his legs into the opening. ‘Wait until you see a light, then climb down the ladder.’
And he just dropped into the darkness. Katrine gasped, expecting to hear a thump as he hit the bottom, but all that emanated from the opening was a quiet whoosh. Moments later a weak, yellow light gleamed about twenty feet below. As her eyes adjusted, the outline of metal rungs came into view.
She shuffled to the edge, found the top rung with her feet, and a handrail. With a bit of awkward maneuvering she was descending into the almost darkness with the meagre moonlight disappearing into the distance above her.
‘Not much further, Katrine.’ Lucien’s voice reassured her from somewhere below, then his steadying hand was on her butt, guiding her to the ground.
She drew a deep breath and turned a slow circle, taking in their surroundings.
The single candle Lucien held cast very meagre light into the narrow circular room. The total silence was almost a physical presence, pressing around her. Lucien led the way to an opening the wall. A narrow corridor with a low ceiling barely skimming above Lucien’s head.
She followed close behind, thankful she wasn’t claustrophobic.
‘Is this the section where the skulls are?’ Her only real knowledge of the catacombs was that certain areas of the tunnels were lined with thousands, or was it millions, of human bones.
‘No. Nowhere near here. There’s no other access this section now.’ Lucien stopped at the entrance to another space. ‘This is where I was turned. And many of my friends.’ He stepped into the space and touched his candle to a row of others in a niche in the wall. ‘We were having a party when a clan of vampires trapped us here. Most were killed, some turned.’
Katrine’s imagination filled with the sounds and sights of innocent young men and women, cornered and killed. Or doomed to a half existence.
‘But you came back here? To a place of such dark memories.’
‘It became a refuge for those of us who were left, then my refuge when I was the only one left. The only male.’
Katrine had heard the stories of vampires being hunted, of having to hide, but it was of a time long gone. A distant memory for those in her family, but not for Lucien.
She took one of the candles and walked to the coffin which lay open in the shadows. ‘You really sleep in there?’
‘It serves its purpose. And is surprisingly comfortable.’
She couldn’t resist touching the faded and lightly frayed satin. Cool and smooth. This was where Lucien had slept for decades. Alone. Had woken up alone in constant darkness. How had he stayed sane?
He’d come up behind her and she turned, sliding her free hand around his waist. ‘I admire you very much, Lucien.’ She kissed him.
This time she was aware of the coolness of his lips, and his tongue as it slid into her mouth. The same energy that surged between them when they’d kissed on the carousel buzzed through her blood. Somewhere in the fog of desire that now thrummed in her body, she realized she was kissing a vampire, and that added an excitement that wasn’t physical.
Lucien pulled her hard against his body and a groan of satisfaction rumbled in her throat at the hard evidence of his arousal against her belly.
Katrine’s candle dropped to the floor, her hand snaking around Lucien’s neck, seeking that cool skin that now drew her like a magnet. Her tongue danced with his, then skimmed across the edge of his teeth and Lucien groaned. Her exploration was rewarded by the sudden descent of his fangs, the tips sharp against her tongue.
She waited for that delicious nip on her lower lip, that piercing of her skin that she’d thought merely playful over-enthusiasm in their last kiss. But she knew better now and wanted it all the more.
But Lucien pulled away.
‘I won’t let that happen again, Katrine.’ He rubbed his finger over her bottom lip. ‘I promise.’
She pushed her hair back over her shoulder, exposing her neck. ‘I want it, Lucien. It’s who you are, and I want that. I want you.’
His cool fingers caressed her throat and she wondered if he could feel how her pulse kicked under his touch.
He wasn’t the predatory vampire he’d been forced to be centuries ago. He’d tasted her blood and not lost control.
‘I trust you.’ She tilted her head to the side, giving him clear access. Clear consent.
She felt the slight tremor that ran through his body. She’d heard some of the women talk about the thrill of the bite, of the restraint it took. The sublime bliss of blood flowing into their mouths.
She was going to give Lucien that bliss.
‘Not yet.’ His breath brushed against her neck as one hand pushed up the hem of her skirt, his fingers pushing aside fabric and cupping her sex.
Katrine gasped at the sudden coolness, her juices flooding his fingers as they delved into her heat.
‘Ahh, Katrine. So tight and wet.’ He kissed her neck, but she felt no scrape of teeth. ‘And real.’
The press of his hard cock against her belly was real as well, and she longed to reach down and touch, but the ministrations of thumb now circling her swollen flesh left her clinging to him as control of her body slowly seeped away.
Breath caught in her throat, then rasped in short burst
s as his thumb and fingers increased their rhythm and the sharp point of his fangs pressed against her neck.
Her body tensed at the precipice of, then momentary pain in her neck, and she toppled. Exultant pleasure radiated from where Lucien pierced her skin. Waves of pain and pleasure. Then waves of heat and pleasure.
As the sensations receded, Katrine found herself sitting on the floor of the candle-lit chamber, wrapped in Lucien’s arms. Her fingers went to her neck and came away sticky, and red.
‘Are you alright?’
His fingers also brushed her neck and an almost imperceptible shudder trembled through him.
‘Are you?’ He obviously hadn’t taken the bite very far, but she had no idea what toll that restraint took on him.
His hold on her tightened. ‘More than alright.’
‘But you …’ She’d been so lost in her own pleasure she hadn’t given a thought to his.
‘You gave me something I haven’t had before, Katrine. A woman giving herself freely. My other needs can wait.’
‘Just as well,’ she murmured against his chest. Whether it was the force of her orgasm, or whatever it was that happened when Lucien bit her, but exhaustion was a heavy blanket slowly being drawn over her body.
‘I need to get you home, Katrine. Once you fall asleep, it will be deep and long. You need your comfortable bed.’
She couldn’t argue with that.
CHAPTER 10
Earth to Alain.’ Juliette waved her hand in front of his face. ‘Is the contents of that file really so engrossing? I’ve been trying to get your attention, but you’re somewhere else.’
‘Sorry.’ Alain swiveled around to look at her. ‘Just trying to get my head around the whole vampire thing. And they’re not words I thought I’d ever need to say.’
‘Anything in there that sheds light on what we’re dealing with?’
‘Only that our current situation mirrors the last known killing thirty years ago.’
After all his years in the homicide division, he could read the most graphic details with detachment. He closed the file on the images of the redheaded woman. Nothing gruesome. No marks on her except for two puncture wounds on her neck. No blood. Not a drop. Not on her, or in her. Her skin, as pale as milk against her burnished hair. The same shade as Katrine’s. He opened the file again.
