by Holly Ryan
“Research. Right.” Jacek nodded as if he didn’t believe me, probably because he’d heard me eyeball fucking Eddie upstairs last night.
“Looks like I caught you in the middle of...” I shook my head at the mats on the floor. “Gymnastics?”
Jacek flashed that panty-dropping grin and crossed his arms. “Judo, actually. I teach a variety of martial arts to vampires a couple nights a week, sometimes here and sometimes not. A family of four just left before you came here.”
“You...” My eyes bugged out of my head. “You teach martial arts to vampires?”
“Yeah. It helps pay the bills. Eddie here works as an online law librarian.”
A teacher and a librarian. That was so unexpected for some reason, even though it made total sense. It was also hot as hell. Men who used their brains were rare in Podunk City, but it had always been an instant turn-on of mine.
“Eddie’s the brains of the operation.” Jacek looked at Eddie and rubbed his mouth like he wanted Eddie to do the same and get rid of some stray blood or something. Eddie took the bait and brought his hand to his jaw, but then realized it was all a joke when Jacek burst out laughing.
Eddie rolled his eyes. “Jacek’s not that good at martial arts. He knows I could take him out if he gets too territorial.”
Jacek threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, is that right? How many years do I have on you again? A hundred and sixty?”
“Doesn’t matter, old man,” Eddie said. “I know ways I could take you out without breaking a sweat.”
An image of the two of them sparring leaped into my head, shirtless obviously, the smell of testosterone thick in the air. I honestly didn’t know who would win in that fight since I’d never seen either one in action, but it would be quite a sight to see as long as no one really got hurt. An arm-wrestling match would work too. Or just standing around shirtless.
Jacek crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Eddie. “I’ll bet you fifty dollars that you can’t even hit me.”
Eddie shook his head, a pitying look on his face. “Do you not remember the last time you bet me and lost?”
“That was to see who could bite into a waterbed filled with blood and drain it the fastest.” Jacek chuckled. “I don’t think anyone really won that bet.”
I grinned at the playfulness between the two of them. I never knew vampires could be so lovable and...real. It kind of made me feel guilty about being a slayer, but I’d never met any quite like these two. I mean three...
“Where’s Sawyer?” I asked. “Is he here?”
“Yeah, he’s here.” Jacek walked barefoot over the blue mat, angling his back away from me. “He keeps to himself mostly.”
Yet I’d felt him mentally undressing me from behind last night on the way here. Did he not want to see me or talk to me like these two? It made no sense, but I couldn’t help the twinge of hurt that gave me. I didn’t even know him. Not like I knew Jacek and Eddie, but still. I was getting to know them, and I liked them. It would be nice to get to know Sawyer too.
“Ready?” Eddie jerked his head for me to follow him up the stairs, his citrine gaze like a hot caress against my skin.
“Yep.”
We started for the library upstairs again and seated ourselves at the table where a fresh stack of books waited, along with a steaming cup of coffee and another slice of pie. I was going to gain so many pounds with this devil proposal research, but I was strangely okay with that. Because pie.
I laid my books down, scanning the titles of the new ones. “The Power of Dreams,” I read. “You think my dreams are important?”
“Depends on what you dream about,” he said, pulling that one off the stack.
I sealed my lips on a smile, my cheeks flaming. My dreams last night had been off the charts, starring three vampires in vibrant detail, but I didn’t think he needed to know about that.
“Sunshine,” Eddie purred, and it sounded as though he was repeating it.
“Huh?”
“Your dreams. What are they about?”
I licked my lips, and Eddie tracked the movement as if my mouth were his prey. Flashes of my dreams sparked in my head, lowering a powerful heat between my thighs. Skin, naked and hot, and biting with fangs, marking me as theirs, all three of them, and round after round of satisfying sex, so much that I thought I would burn up from the inside out. I gripped the armrests of the chair, trying to control my increasingly erratic breaths.
“Just...you know...” I swallowed. “Normal stuff.”
Eddie’s chest heaved against his suit jacket. A red preternatural glow ignited around his irises, and the twin points of fangs peeked from behind his full lips. “Sunshine,” he growled, “your desire smell is through the roof.”
“Would you like to do something about that?” I blinked hard as soon as the words had flown out of my mouth, stunned at my own brazenness, but I meant every word. I shoved my chair back and around, then looped my foot around the leg of his chair, and just like he’d done last night, I scooted him out to face me.
“Yes,” he said, his voice as sinful as any demon’s. “Yes, I would.” He dropped to his knees in front of me and nudged my thighs open as he drew closer, his gaze alight with fiery hunger. His fingertips curled over the waistband of my yoga pants and underwear. “Can you promise me something?”
Raw need coursed through my body. I lifted my hips slightly and shifted toward him so my panties rubbed against my suddenly very wet folds. I pushed my lips together to stifle a moan while slick heat gathered at my center until it throbbed. “Anything.”
“I need you to keep your hands on the armrests. No touching me. Can you do that for me, Sunshine?” He rolled the fabric of my yoga pants and panties down my thighs, my aching pussy now on full display, and I didn’t even care.
“I promise.” I wanted him so much it shocked the air from my lungs and wetted the leather underneath my bare ass. To save time, I threw off my T-shirt and sports bra while he finishing ridding me of my pants until I sat there completely nude. His for the taking, and I sure hoped he would. Then, without question, I clasped my fingers around the armrests.
His gaze traveled down the length of me, tightening and igniting everything inside me all over again.
“Belle.” My name was an awed whisper and a sinful promise coming off his lips.
I spread my legs wider in invitation, craving his touch as much as my next stuttered breath. With his heated gaze locked on mine, he ghosted his hands up my thighs, his fingertips barely touching. Then when his mouth was just inches from mine, he gripped my hips hard and hauled them to the edge of my seat. My back hit the headrest, knocking the wind out of me, but air didn’t seem to matter all that much when Eddie dipped his head between my knees.
He pressed feather light kisses up my inner thigh. When he drew closer to my center, his kisses became harder with an intoxicating mix of tongue and fangs. My hips rolled toward him involuntarily. My blood stirred faster, spiking the throb in my pussy to almost painful. I moaned and gripped the arms of the chair to anchor myself to it while he kissed his way to my soaked center.
He flicked his gaze to mine, his eyes like twin flames, ready to consume. His lips were so close to my folds that his next words vibrated inside me. “Do you taste as good as you smell?”
“Please,” I begged. “Taste me and find out.”
With a wicked grin, he gripped my hips tighter and flicked out his tongue. The first stroke along my slit nearly lifted me out of the chair. I cried out his name, but the rest of my words tangled up when his tongue stroked me, tasting me. He groaned, and the low rumble slid into me, too, plucking every nerve until they turned into livewires.
My body buzzed under his expert touch. I’d never felt anything like this before—my craving or his worshipping. My hips rocked forward into his face to meet his tongue’s thrusts. I wanted to sink my hands into his wild, silky hair and twine them at the back of his head to hold him there for an eternity, but somehow I behaved myself.
He freed one hand from my hips and dropped it below the edge of the chair where I couldn’t see. A zipper sounded, and I tried to lift my head from the back of the chair to see what he was packing between his legs. But then he slid two fingers inside of me, and my thoughts scrambled. While his hand worked inside me, he kissed his way to my clit and flicked it with his tongue so it swelled even more.
I held to the armrests tighter, my hips bucking.
“You’re so wet, Belle.” He slid his hand out and dipped it between his legs. “And you taste like a goddess.”
He groaned as the muscles in one arm bunched and flexed, his mouth never leaving me, and it didn’t take a genius to know what he was doing to himself. I sat up as much as I could to watch him. His long, thick cock glistened with the wetness he’d taken from me. His fist slid along his shaft in quick pumps while his hips rode the air. What a fucking turn-on.
“You can bite me, Eddie,” I said between pants.
Something dangerous flickered behind his eyes when he glanced up at me. “Only after you come.”
I was close, so close to tipping over the edge. Eddie seemed to feel it, too, because he lavished his attention on my clit, stroking and sucking it, building up my orgasm to explode to every part of my body.
Seconds later, it did. My whole body clenched. Blood roared through my veins. Eddie tasted me through it while he continued to stroke himself. Then he pulled his head away from me, his fangs on display, and sank them into the inner part of my upper thigh. I cried out at the sensual shock as his teeth pierced my skin. My body still buzzed with the aftereffects of my orgasm, and his bite stretched it out longer.
He moaned into my flesh, his tongue circling and sucking, while his hips slowed. A full-body shudder rolled through him. Just as I was starting to sag into my chair and see imaginary spots floating past with the blood loss, he pulled away. His lips were bloodstained, and his eyes were half shuttered behind his glasses.
“You taste”—he licked his lips—“fucking awesome.”
I shrugged, a goofy smile stuck to my mouth, too sated to focus on much of anything except him. “It’s the least we could do for vamps. You know, taste good before we kill them.”
He stood, tucking everything back into his pants and straightening his glasses and hair, his smile as dangerous as the rest of him. “You’re going to kill me?”
“I may have to make an exception,” I said. “Your tongue is too knowledgeable.”
“So is my head.” He zipped up his pants and winked. “Both of them.”
I snorted a laugh as I stood to pull up my yoga pants.
He stopped me with a kiss. His mouth covered mine with a heady mix of his taste and mine. Somehow he touched every part of me with just his lips, simultaneously melting and hardening everything down to my toes.
Dizzying minutes or weeks or years later, he pulled away. “Ready to get down to business with more research?”
Funny, I thought we just had.
Chapter Four
The next night, a cold drizzle coated everything with a fine layer of moisture that made everything slick, including my grip on my stake. My boots cracked only slightly over the gravel path, the ground too wet to roll loose stones under my feet. The night held quiet except for the occasional rattle of tree leaves overhead and a car passing in the distance. I swept my gaze around headstones, cherub and angel statues, and hedges as I went, searching for any sign of movement.
And trying desperately to keep my head in the game. Last night with Eddie had electrified me. His lips, his tongue, the carnal way he looked at me... It had been a hard struggle to keep my mind on anything but him. Even now, his bite between my legs tingled, a not-so-subtle reminder of what I could have again in the next few hours. As if I could forget.
I didn’t mind his no-touching rule, but I did wonder about it, as I did about the scars on Jacek’s back. Maybe someone from their pasts had caused these things, but I hated the thought of either of them being hurt physically, psychologically, or any –lly. True, I didn’t know them all that well, but I knew enough to know they didn’t deserve to suffer. They were too good. I knew that as well as my own name.
Up ahead, something squeaked, low and long, muffled by the veil of mist. My heartbeat spiked and my ears perked. I slowed, trying to zero in on where the sound had come from. There was only one entrance to the cemetery, and that was behind me, not in front. The sound hadn’t come from a gate. A coffin opening in an unfilled grave? Maybe I was about to have company of the undead variety.
Or maybe it was the mausoleum door flapping open in the slight breeze. The squat, stone structure sat tucked in the far corner of the cemetery, on the opposite side as the grounds man’s work shed. A large gnarled tree bent over it and tapped a few branches on the roof as if to see if anyone was home. Was there?
I was about to find out.
I crossed toward it on silent feet. The name Alpert was spelled out over the single door, and I nudged it open with my boot. Damp, stale air rolled from inside. Darkness had swallowed the space, so I dug for my cell in my pocket, keeping a tight grip on my stake with my other hand. Once the flashlight app glowed from my phone, I thrust it forward and followed the meager light inside. Steep stairs led downward, and I stepped carefully to avoid a face-plant. On the opposite wall, a large stained-glass window allowed only faint traces of moonlight through its complicated design. A steady knock echoed throughout the stone walls, making it hard to tell if it came from the tree branches on the rooftop or the inside of the stone coffin in the middle of the floor. The sound came from everywhere, making it hard to discern all other noises.
I didn’t dare go too far down the stairs in case some vampire prankster slammed the door shut behind me, but from my viewpoint, there was nothing in here but death. Thankfully, not mine. I turned to leave.
And ran straight into a mouthful of fangs.
My blood thundering, I leaped back, caught off guard for a split second. Over the tree branches’ thumps, I hadn’t heard the vampire sneaking up behind me.
She lunged at my throat. I adjusted my grip on the slick column of my stake, and she ran right into it, the sucker. That was bloody punny. I’ll stop now.
She disintegrated into a pile of blood on the steps, and I stepped over what remained of her. As I shut the door firmly behind me, a prickle chased up my exposed back. I whirled around, my gaze jerking around the rest of the cemetery. A sigh that sounded almost like a low chuckle rattled through the breeze and slammed my heart into my ribs. The hair along my arms stood on end, and I had the distinct feeling that someone was watching me. Someone who vibrated with power. Waiting. Possibly the devil himself, but I didn’t smell brimstone. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, though.
Regardless, I refused to be anyone’s play toy. Even so, my breaths hitched as I rounded every corner in the path, and my knuckles ached with the grip I kept around my stake because this didn’t feel right. At all.
After two more rounds of the cemetery, I dispatched one more vampire, all the while feeling the power of a penetrating stare scraping up and down my body. Studying me? Searching for weaknesses? I had too many to count, but whatever it was didn’t need to know that.
On my way out, I locked the gate and headed to what was becoming my second home to return another pile of Eddie’s books I’d borrowed.
That same static noise I’d heard outside The Bean Dream buzzed though the air. It grew loud enough to scrape at the inside of my skull. I looked around just outside the cemetery gate, my fingers locked tight around a stake and wincing at the sound. There was no logical explanation for where it was coming from.
“Lovely...night...” That same rusty, disembodied voice floated through the darkness.
Unease seeped deep into my bones. This felt far out of my range of expertise, and I didn’t like it one bit. I got out of there fast.
More than anything, I wanted the soothing balm of the house next door and its inhabitants. Who knew that a
vampire nest could feel so much like home?
The front door swung inward before I even knocked, and I practically liquefied inside, my stress and worries already peeling away. I shut the door firmly behind me, though, and locked it.
Jacek stood in the living room just as he had last night—shirtless, thank goodness—and standing barefoot on the blue mat. Sweat glistened on his skin and dripped from his short dark hair. Eddie and Sawyer were nowhere to be seen.
“How’s my favorite slayer tonight?” Jacek asked with his signature grin.
“Oh, the usual,” I said, enjoying the view. “Trying not to become the devil’s bride and looking cute while I do so.”
“We’ll figure out the former, and mission accomplished on the latter.” He winked, and my heart stuttered. But his good humor faded the longer he looked at me. “Are you all right? You look a little pale.”
“Yeah, never better. I just...” I shrugged, trying to form words around what exactly had made me feel so unsettled at the cemetery. “I keep hearing these static noises and a voice, and...I don’t know... It doesn’t feel right.”
Jacek frowned and crossed his arms, making his muscles flex. “Does this voice say anything in particular or...?”
“‘Lovely night.’” The static noise came to me again, sort of like an echo from a great distance. I rubbed at my forehead as if to scour it and the memory away. “That’s it. It seems so silly now that I actually say it.” Yet it felt good to get it off my chest, too.
He shook his head, not a trace of judgement on his face. “You’re the slayer. If it feels wrong, then it’s wrong.”
I took a cleansing breath and nodded as I set down my duffel bag by the door. “You’re right. Which is why I came here, because it feels...right.” I smiled, and his answering grin could’ve rivaled the sun in its cheery brilliance.
