by Jill Myles
Interesting.
Ethan slid in next to me, and the car took off into the sunset. I tried to follow the direction we were heading, but Ethan kept punching the buttons on the limo door, turning the radio off and on, the lighting off and on, and rolling the window up and down like a five-year-old child. By the time he caught my glare, we were out of the city and cruising onto the flat, endless highway that stretched into Wyoming for miles on end.
“Where are we going?” I asked, leaning forward to question the driver.
She only gave me another thumbs-up, then rolled up the screen. So much for that.
As I watched the sun sink into the horizon, my anxiety rose. Would Zane be happy to see me? What if this was a trap? Nervous, I twisted my hands in my lap and tried to count the mile markers.
Just when the sky was darkening to the pinkish purple shade that preceded twilight, we made a right turn off of the highway and down a long drive. A wrought-iron gate opened as we entered and tall cottonwood trees lined the sides of the road, obscuring the view from the highway. I craned my neck as the car approached our destination. A pale mansion loomed ahead of us, tall and stately, with square white columns supporting a high, arched roof. The driveway was a long circle leading up to it. Impressive, but this seemed … almost modest for the queen.
A line of limos crawled down the driveway. As we waited for our turn, I watched woman after gorgeous woman descend from the cars, dressed in formal, glittery gowns. My stomach clenched a little more. This was like a prom, except I had a feeling that these women were going to be eaten before the evening was up. They looked happy, though, so either they weren’t aware they were heading into a vampire lair, or they knew and didn’t care.
Remembering how Zane’s bite brought an instant orgasm, I was betting the latter.
Our limo pulled up to the front of the house, and the driver turned and knocked on the window, then indicated that we should get out.
A little skeptical of that, I murmured a thanks and followed Ethan out of the car, tugging on the hem of my skirt.
The mansion porch was packed with people—all women, except for the man standing at my side. Some of the women were in waitstaff uniforms, tuxedo tops with tails and fishnet stockings, and high heels. The women inside were equally beautiful and equally bored looking, standing around holding wineglasses and whispering to each other.
“Looks like the vampires aren’t here yet,” I said to Ethan, looping my hand through the crook of his arm.
He immediately tensed, and his hands flexed as if he wanted to grab his bo staff. “This is a good thing, Jackie Brighton.”
Again with the full name. His social skills needed some serious work. “Maybe we shouldn’t use names for a while, Ethan—just in case.” Just in case the queen had someone on the lookout for me.
My stomach chose that moment to growl, and I glanced around the room. Sure enough, a banquet of hors d’oeuvres was laid out nearby. Caviar, giant shrimp, a dozen kinds of cheeses, fresh fruit, chocolates, and tiny sandwiches had been arrayed in a beautiful pattern, next to a table with champagne glasses. I made a beeline for the table, noticing that the other women in the room were avoiding the food like the plague. Not this woman—I grabbed one of the tiny plates and began to fill it with food. As we waited, I ate plenty of everything on the table and washed it down with bubbly champagne.
I mean, it wasn’t like I was worried I could spill it on the front of my dress. I didn’t have a front of my dress.
As I was going back for thirds on the shrimp, a low murmur swept through the room. A moment later it began to empty, women grabbing glasses of champagne and hurrying down a hallway. Curious at their lemminglike abandonment of the party, I put my plate down and followed, dragging a reluctant Ethan with me. Ahead, women were descending down a massive staircase into a large, shadowy basement. My skin prickled.
“Perhaps this is not a wise idea,” Ethan whispered as I continued to drag him forward.
“We’re already in this deep,” I said, but my spidey-sense was tingling, as well. I’d once likened my succubi senses to a tuning fork: when I was near another succubus, my senses tingled pleasantly. When I was in danger, they twanged unpleasantly inside me.
Right now my tuning fork was caterwauling.
The stairs descended into darkness. I shrank in close to Ethan, expecting to feel the press of dozens of women crammed against me. To my surprise, though, the women began to move apart, still murmuring and laughing amongst themselves. “This is weird,” I said to Ethan, noting how my voice echoed in the darkness. “How big is this room?”
Lights flashed on and, momentarily blinded, I dropped my gaze to the floor. It was smooth and hard, like a dance floor. Odd. I squinted up at the lights overhead, staring at the vaulted ceiling.
The basement was an enormous ballroom, and we’d descended in the middle of it.
The lighting dimmed, replaced by electric candelabras that made my dress glitter in the soft light. The women around me were ditching their glasses to the waitresses and seemed to be primping in preparation of something. Despite my high heels, I was having a hard time seeing over the crowd. I craned my neck for a few moments. “Do you see anything, Ethan?”
“I see lots of women and half-naked flesh,” he said in a disapproving voice.
Yeah, he wasn’t going to be much help. I dragged him back to the steps and moved up a few, the better to see across the ballroom.
On the far end of the immense floor, row after row of bodies were laid out on marble slabs.
My body clenched in fright. And as I scanned the rows of figures—there must have been dozens of them—recognition dawned and my palms began to sweat. Those were the vampires, not yet awakened from their slumber.
No wonder there were so many women here tonight without dates—they were hooking up with the vampires.
Thinking of Zane, my heart fluttered with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, and I scanned the rows of unmoving vampires, looking for a familiar dark head. It was pretty far, and the lighting was dim, so I didn’t see him. That almost made it worse. Did I want him to be laid out with row upon row of vampires, just another evil minion to the evilest bitch in the world?
I hopped on the step, leaning on Ethan’s arm as I looked again among vampires. “I don’t see Zane,” I worried aloud. “What does it mean if he’s not here?”
My date gave a strangled sound. “Cease with the jumping, Jackie Brighton. You are in danger of losing your dress.”
Oops. So I was. I went up on tippy-toe again, giving the room one last scan before giving up. “I don’t see the queen, either.” The large, empty throne on the far side of the room told me that the guest of honor hadn’t made her appearance yet. I tugged at my skirt again, wishing it was about a foot longer and my top was wider. One wrong move and I was going to pop a boob.
“What do you wish to do, Jackie Brighton?”
I gnawed on my lip, thinking. “The rational, sane part of me says we should leave before the queen gets here.”
“I agree with that rational, sane part of you. I wish it showed up more often.”
I gave Ethan a wry smile and then frogged his arm. “Very funny. But we’re here for a reason.”
“Indeed,” Ethan said in a mild voice, shifting. The rental tuxedo stretched tightly across his shoulders, the seams near to bursting. “Do the vampires know who has taken your friend? Can they help us free Noah Gideon?”
“No, and no,” I said, my mood deflating a little. Jeez. Ethan needed to learn how to sugarcoat things. “That’s a different set of problems. I need my ex-boyfriend,” I said significantly. “And I need him in about a day or so, unless you’re feeling romantic.”
Ethan swallowed hard. “I see. Should we find him, then?”
His awkwardness was a nice change from the men I’d been encountering ever since I’d been transformed into a succubus. Usually they did nothing but stare at my breasts and try to surreptitiously grab my ass. Ethan looked as if he’d
be happier if I were dressed in flannel pajamas rather than a sexy dress.
That made two of us.
At that moment, the room hushed and everyone seemed to turn at once. The vampires were rising.
As the ballroom waited breathlessly, one man arose from his bier. When Zane awoke, he did so like any other human—scratched his chest, yawned, stretched. These vampires had not gotten the same memo. One jerked awake like a drowning man, clawing to his feet, chest heaving. The next followed suit, jerking awake and crawling upright. It was bizarre to watch, and I stood there entranced as each one lurched to his feet and tried to compose himself.
The queen was still nowhere to be seen.
Then stately, classical music began. One of the vampires approached a smiling, eager woman and held his hand out. She took it without a backward look, letting him pull her into his arms and sweep her onto the dance floor. One by one, the others paired off until the dance floor was filled with vampires and their partners. Only a few women were left on the sidelines, watching the last of the waking vampires in the hope that they would find a partner themselves.
As I watched a vampire and his partner twirl past, I caught a glimpse of red eyes as he leaned in and pressed his face to the woman’s neck. My blood pulsed low in my hips, sensing the desire swelling in the room.
The woman shuddered as if in intense pleasure and the vampire’s arm locked around her waist, pinning her to him as they continued to dance. She missed a few steps, but no one seemed to care. On and on the vampires whirled past, and the scent of blood and the salty hint of sex began to tinge the air. As they twirled past, I could hear soft cries of pleasure as the women being bitten came to orgasm. The bizarre, roiling crowd somehow managed to move in time with the music despite being a sexual buffet.
It turned me on. Poor Ethan; this was going to be a bit much for him.
A vampire approached, glaring at Ethan as he moved toward me, red eyes gleaming as his gaze rested on my breasts. Yipes. I grabbed Ethan and pulled him onto the dance floor. I couldn’t be food if my arms were already occupied—I hoped.
“Jackie—” Ethan began to protest.
“Just dance with me,” I hissed, pulling his arm around my waist and beginning to drag him around in a semblance of a waltz. Since Ethan clearly did not know how to dance, I had to lead. Unfortunately, I stepped on his foot, and he yelped. A woman’s cry of pleasure resounded right after, and Ethan looked like he was going to choke on his tongue.
“Come on, choirboy,” I said, circling him around. “We have to blend or this could get ugly. I don’t want to be someone’s midnight snack, so you need to pretend to be my date. Got it?”
“I understand,” he said slowly, and his eyes flickered silver, then settled back to their normal black. A good deed fed, then. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge him that.
He stepped on my foot and I nearly passed out. Seven foot of warrior on my teeny rhinestone-decorated toes—dear God, there was no pain quite like that. I yelped and when a vampire looked over, had to bury my face in Ethan’s chest, pretending to swoon.
“Sorry,” he whispered at me, shoulders stiff and awkward. “I am not familiar with romancing a woman.”
“We’re not romancing, we’re just pretending.” I pulled a little farther away from him, sensing his discomfort at having my half-naked body pressed to his. “Just dance, and we’ll worry about the other stuff later.”
He twirled me roughly, jerking me so hard that my neck nearly snapped. Well, at least this way I’d match the vampires’ half-limp partners. Ethan took the initiative after that and twirled me around the floor, spinning so quickly that my head began to swim. The dance floor weaved back and forth. My feet tried to keep in time with Ethan’s rapid turns, but we were quickly moving out of control.
I felt a subtle shift in the ballroom, the atmosphere changing. Where the room had been almost too warm for the Wyoming night, it now felt too cold. The temperature seemed to drop as we danced, and my skin began to crawl. I felt an overwhelming sensation of dread and revulsion, and I knew what that meant. As Ethan spun me past, I caught a glimpse between shoulders of the throne that we’d moved perilously close to. It was no longer empty. I saw a pair of long bare legs and a red dress, and the hors d’oeuvres I’d devoured threatened to come up. “Stop, Ethan,” I murmured, retreat strong on my mind. “The queen’s here.” I wanted desperately to get away from the front of the room.
Ethan halted entirely, which wasn’t what I’d had in mind. I slammed into his chest, and the couple next to us slammed into us as well.
The vampire sniffed the air, looked over at me, then hissed. “Succubus,” he said, staring at my face, then down at my boobs.
Oh shit. How did he know me? I backed away, slamming into Ethan again. “Who, me?”
The vampire gazed at the dais, up at the throne, and I looked over as well.
Zane stood at the queen’s side, shirtless. His wings spread behind him like a black waterfall of feathers, and black pants rode low on his hips. A cynical smile twisted his beautiful face as he scanned the room, and I noticed a rope looped around his throat. The crown prince of the vampires, every inch of him exuded power and dominance. The rope around his neck might as well have been a necklace for all that it mattered.
The queen played with the end of the tether, her midnight black gaze sweeping the crowd. Her vile mouth was pursed with distaste as, seemingly bored, she slouched on her throne. She looked like a thousand pounds of evil packed into a slender, hundred-pound body. Just the sight of her made me freeze with terror, the aura of malevolence that swam around her touching me and making my muscles lock. I had to fight the urge to run away.
This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. Seeing that loop around Zane’s neck highlighted the fact that he belonged to her—he was probably being punished for his affection toward me. He was bound to her, having exchanged his freedom for mine. Searing pain filled my chest.
I stared wordlessly at my former lover, unable to look away from that awful rope around his neck. As if sensing my gaze, Zane’s cynical face turned toward me. Confusion flickered over it, and then a flicker of hope, quickly hidden. His eyes devoured me from afar, sliding over my skimpy silver dress and long, bare legs to the loose, curling hair that fell about my shoulders. His gaze fell to my hands, clasped in Ethan’s, and, he finally seemed to notice my tall, muscle-bound date. His eyes narrowed to dark, red slits of anger.
Oh dear. I took a step backward, running into Ethan’s chest again.
Even worse, the queen’s black-eyed gaze focused on us as well. Her mouth curved into an evil smile, and she released Zane’s leash, murmuring something that I couldn’t hear.
Zane leapt into the audience and couples scattered, desperate to get out of his way. He stalked toward Ethan and me, the look of a predator in his eyes as I watched helplessly.
To my horror, Ethan released my hands and stood in front of me in a defensive pose, trying to protect me from the approaching vampire. “Move away, Jackie Brighton. You are in danger.”
“No, Ethan, wait,” I began.
Zane grabbed Ethan by his rental jacket and flung him through the air, the large Enforcer slamming into the floor and scattering people. The sound of his landing made a deafening boom, and the music stopped.
Ethan leapt to his feet and shrugged his shoulders as if unaffected by the hit, and his jacket split and fell about his arms.
I ran forward to separate the two men, nearly tripping on my ridiculous shoes as Zane grabbed the front of Ethan’s shirt and lifted a fist.
Ethan pulled backward, the shirt ripping and exposing Ethan’s chest, and a few women sighed with pleasure.
Zane’s punch was caught midair by Ethan’s meaty hand and Zane was shoved roughly to the side, flying through the air in a mess of feathers and flying limbs.
I gave a small, choked scream and punched Ethan’s arm. “What are you doing?”
He automatically grabbed my hand, confusion in his face. “I
am defending you, Jackie Brighton—”
A snarl sounded in the air. “Don’t you fucking touch her.” Before either of us could react, Zane dive-bombed from the air and crashed into Ethan, sending both of them skidding backward.
My hand was still trapped in Ethan’s so I went crashing backward with them, my body slamming into someone else’s legs. A sharp gasp erupted from my throat as my spine cracked from the hit. Ow. My knee banged on the hard marble floor, as did my shoulder.
This was going to hurt in the morning.
Someone stepped on my hair, pinning me to the floor, and my boob chose that moment to slip out of my flimsy dress. With an awkward yelp I hastily shoved it back, jerking my head to try and free it.
“Jackie, Princess,” said the familiar, liquid voice that I’d daydreamed about.
The person standing on my hair was shoved away and strong hands lifted me into the air, cradling me against a warm, bare chest. Zane held me against him as if I were a newly found treasure.
I cuddled close, closing my eyes and inhaling in his familiar scent, my heart aching with need and love. I reached up to touch his cheek, feeling the smoothness of his jaw, the soft line of his lips. He gave my thumb a small bite, his fangs scraping against my skin. I shivered.
“Are you all right, Princess?” he whispered against my hair, soft and loving and just as heartbreaking as I remembered. “Did he hurt you?”
“Just my pride,” I muttered, running my hand along his neck and twisting my fingers in his hair. It was so soft, and he smelled so good. God, I’d missed him so much.
“You will release her, vampire,” Ethan said in a warning voice nearby.
Oh crap. I opened my eyes and frowned at Ethan, who was taking the guardian thing quite to heart. Four vampires held him back, his arms swinging wildly as he struggled to free himself. He’d fling one off, only to have another pry his arm down. Still, it took four of them to hold him there.
