by 33 authors
She could hear his breathing on the other end of the line, as if he was thinking about how to answer her.
“I’m not sure how to tell you this, Ms. Stacey, but it’s not an unknown fact around these parts. Your Great-Aunt Prudence didn’t really get along well with others. As a matter of fact, her last few years here on Earth, she holed herself up inside her house, refusing to see anyone. The only time she spoke to people was to call the grocery store, the pharmacy or our local doctor for her needs, and again when she answered the door for those deliveries.”
Catriogwyn was nodding her head while he spoke. She wasn’t surprised to hear that Prudence wasn’t social.
“So, what you’re telling me, Mr. Kemp, is that Great-Aunt Prudence was a hermit?”
He chuckled, “Why, yes, Ms. Stacey. I believe that’s what I’m telling you.”
She sighed, “So it’ll be just me there, then. Thank you, Mr. Kemp. I will see you tomorrow morning.”
She pulled the receiver away from her ear so she could hang up but brought it back up when she heard him call her name.
“Yes?”
He let out a breath, “I feel you should know that the reading is taking place at your Great-Aunt Prudence’s estate.”
* * *
CHAPTER 6
Catriogwyn paused in the act of standing up and replied, “I’m aware of this fact, Mr. Kemp. Do you think that I never visited my Great-Aunt Prudence?”
His sharp intake of breath gave her his answer before he said anything.
“I didn’t mean to imply anything of the sort by my statement. I just felt you should know. It was the way Prudence wanted things to be.”
She shook her head. It was definitely something her Great-Aunt Prudence would do. It certainly didn’t surprise Catriogwyn that Prudence wanted to have her will read in her home.
“I know how my Great-Aunt was, Mr. Kemp. Nothing you say about her will surprise me. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get off the phone now. I turned the shower on before I made this call and I’d like to get to it before I run out of hot water. You know how it is when you take a flight, no matter how long it is. Jet lag. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
She didn’t give him a chance to answer, just hung up the phone and stood up. She made her way to the bathroom and the enticing sound of running water, stripping off her clothes on the way.
I’ll pick these up later, she thought.
Right now I just want to shower and relax before hunting down my dinner.
She stepped into the tub and let the water flow over her. Holding her head under the spray of water, she felt the knots along her shoulders start to loosen. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that stressing out really hadn’t been an option. She was trying to keep a level head but she wasn’t sure what Prudence had left for her. Well, maybe the estate, but honestly she could have left it for the lawyers to take care of.
Catriogwyn leaned her forehead onto the cool tile of the shower. She was tired of losing her loved ones and being alone to walk on Earth. Oh sure, she could call up Lukas and have him walk back into her life but that was one “family” member she really didn’t want hanging around. She’d cut ties with him as soon as she’d been able to control all of her hungers. She turned the water off and stepped out of the tub.
There was a knock on the door as she was wrapping a towel around her body.
Who in the world could that be? she wondered as she left the bathroom and headed in the direction of the hotel door.
She looked through the peephole and saw nothing but flowers. Curious, she opened the door a crack.
“Yes?”
“I have a flower delivery for Ms. Catriogwyn Stacey.”
It looked like her dinner had brought itself to her door.
“I can see that. But now really isn’t a good time.”
“Look, lady. I just deliver when and where I’m told. Timing isn’t my problem.”
He sounded a little exasperated.
“Okay. Alright. Come on in.”
He walked past her into the room beyond.
“Where do you want these?”
She looked around, trying to decide where the flowers would look best. There weren’t that many options but she needed to keep him occupied for just a few more minutes.
“Why don’t you just set them on that table over there?” she suggested as she shut the door and moved towards him.
He set the flowers down and turned toward the door, as if to leave, only to pause as he got his first look at her. She’d let the towel slip, just a touch, to expose the swell of her breasts and his gaze was glued to that swell.
Just like any red-blooded male, she thought as she fought to keep the smug smile off her face.
“Is there anything else …?”
He jumped as if he’d been slapped and his gaze jerked up to meet hers. She smiled at him, hoping that, just this once, she might be able to entice the man to make the first move. She never realized how truly lonely she was until it came down to her having to take a lover just to survive.
He shook his head, answering her question, but his gaze kept returning to the swell of her breasts barely showing over the top of the towel. He took a cautious step forward, as if afraid she’d reject him. She gave him an encouraging smile, letting him know that it was going to be okay.
When he was about a foot away from her, he reached out and took hold of her wrist. Tugging lightly, he pulled her into his arms. The towel hadn’t been wrapped around her body too tightly and slipped completely off when she moved.
As soon as her body met his, he lowered his head and captured her mouth.
Finally, a man who knows how to take what he wants. I’m so glad I didn’t have to make the first move with this one. It makes it that much harder when they eventually die from being my lover.
When they came up for air, he smiled and said, a bit breathlessly, “My name is Dominic.”
She gave a throaty laugh and replied, “I’m Catriogwyn. Shall we take this into the bedroom?”
His hungry gaze took in her naked form and then he nodded eagerly. She stepped away from him and led him by the hand, making sure there was no question as to what she had in mind once they got there. She looked over her shoulder as they crossed the threshold and saw just how ready Dominic was.
She smiled at him as they made it to the bed. She gave him a gentle push and watched him fall backward. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, watching as she advanced toward him.
“Do you think you can handle what I’m offering?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow and sultry smile.
He took the bait, just like she was hoping he would.
“Oh yeah, baby. Bring it on!”
He sat up and pulled his shirt off, throwing it on the floor. He stood and quickly undid his belt, button and zipper, slipping his jeans down his legs and stepping out of them. His underwear soon followed. Her gaze moved down the line of his body, stopping when she came to his cock. She saw just how ready he was to prove he could handle what she wanted.
He laid back down on the bed, cupping his cock as he did. She watched him stroke himself for a couple of minutes before joining him. She replaced his hand with her own.
She needed to get him worked up enough to let down his guard. It was the only way she could feed the Succubus part of herself. She preferred to feed the Vampire side after she’d seduced the man and made sure he was happy. She’d found, through lots of trial and error, that her partner seemed to have a much better time donating their blood right at the crucial moment of sex. At that high point where all the walls come down and there’s just that blissful precipice you’ve stepped off of.
* * *
CHAPTER 7
Catriogwyn looked down at Dominic as he lay snoring in the hotel bed. She couldn’t stand sleeping next to her meals. Though to be fair, Dominic was young enough that she might be able to hang on to him for the duration of her stay in Wilshire without doing too much damage.
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He rolled over, muttering under his breath about other deliveries he still had to make. She felt a small twinge of guilt, but how often does your meal come knocking on your door? She was about to turn so that she could get her bags from the sitting room when she saw that her playmate was still bleeding from the puncture marks on his neck.
She nicked her tongue with one of her fangs, letting the blood flow, and then leaned over and licked the marks until the flow of blood stopped completely. Satisfied, she made her way into the sitting room and her bags.
She set her suitcase on the loveseat and opened it, searching for something to wear. With the seduction part out of the way, she didn’t need the revealing outfit she’d packed to entice her dinner back to the hotel with her. Unless she accidentally killed Dominic in one of her many feedings, that was, then the outfit would come in very handy to find another donor.
She settled on a light green T-shirt and her favorite pair of black jeans. She wanted to be comfortable, but not frumpy. It was then that she remembered the flowers that had brought her the wonderful meal she’d just enjoyed for the last hour and a half.
She went to the table and looked at the beautiful arrangement, trying to locate a card. She found it in the middle of all the flowers and pulled it out to see who they were from.
Our deepest sympathies.
The Staff at Kemp and Evans Esq.
She set the card next to the vase and smelled the flowers.
That’s so nice of them. It must have been done after I hung up with Mr. Kemp. I can’t wait to get this whole thing over with.
She took a deep breath as she heard movement from the bedroom. Dominic emerged, fully dressed. She smiled at him as he made his way to her. She held her hand out, her smile widening as he took it.
It never failed to amaze her how powerful the Succubus side was. Having sex with her once was addictive, that’s why she had to be so careful. The Vampire side wasn’t to be underestimated either, but once the blood thirst was quenched she didn’t need to continue taking blood. With the Succubus part of her, things weren’t as simple.
Catriogwyn actually enjoyed sex. Meaning if she could get away with it, she’d have it all day long, every day. But that was the real problem. IF she were able to have sex that often, she’d kill more men than she wanted to.
There was another problem; she had really wanted to settle down and have a family until Lukas stole that option away from her. To top all of that off, the Vampire upped the Succubus’s power so much that if she had sex with one partner too often she would kill them. So, even if she was only in Wilshire for a couple of days, she was risking Dominic’s life.
“Where are you, Catriogwyn?”
Dominic looked as if he’d been talking to her for a few minutes, while she’d been thinking. Him speaking her name snapped her out of her musings.
“Oh! Sorry, Dominic. I was just thinking. Listen, don’t you have more deliveries to make?”
He played with her fingers, “As a matter of fact, I do. Are you trying to get rid of me?”
She laughed.
“No, no, it’s nothing like that. I have a few things of my own to take care of and I don’t want to be the reason you might lose your job.”
He sighed, “All right. What time will you get back here, do you think? I get off work at six and, I gotta say, the sex was incredible!”
She giggled, “You weren’t so bad yourself, Tiger. Now go on, get out of here and finish those deliveries. I’ll meet you back here at seven.”
She led him to the door where he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She broke the kiss off before it truly got started. She needed him to leave and do his work, so that he could replenish the life energy, or aura for lack of a better word, that she’d taken when they’d had sex.
“I’ll see you at seven then, sexy.”
She practically had to push him out the door. After she’d shut the door, she leaned against it. She hoped that he would break out of the Succubus’ sex-induced spell to do his job. She gave it another ten minutes before she looked out the peephole to make sure he’d actually left and wasn’t hanging just outside the door.
The hallway was clear so she grabbed the card key and left the room.
* * *
CHAPTER 8
The next morning found Catriogwyn at her Great-Aunt’s estate, waiting for the attorneys to arrive. She got out of her rental car that she'd picked up earlier that morning, and smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her dress. She’d arrived fifteen minutes early so she could get a look at the house and the grounds, just in case Prudence had, indeed, left the property to her.
The front yard needed a little work, but it seemed that someone had been doing their best to continue some kind of upkeep. She slowly made her way through the front yard and stood in the middle, looking at the house.
It was in pretty decent shape. Painted white with blue shutters, it looked in better condition than the yard. Every shutter was in place, every board on the porch looked almost new. Someone had obviously taken great care in making sure the house didn’t fall apart. She briefly wondered who it could’ve been, then decided she probably didn’t want to know. She shook her head and made her way into the backyard.
The back was a completely different story than the front. It needed severe weeding and mowing. There was what appeared to be a grapevine trying to take over, fighting among the overgrown grass and plethora of weeds. As she climbed through the jungle that was pretending to be a yard, she took notice of the rose bushes peeking over some extremely tall weeds. There were so many different colors, she felt as if she was walking toward a rainbow that she could touch.
She couldn’t understand how these bushes were blooming with all of the overgrown foliage, but it was a field of beauty amidst such ugliness that it took her breath away. She ran her fingers lovingly over the silky petals of the orange colored rose closest to her.
At the sound of an approaching car, she picked her way back through the sea of grass and weeds to the front of the house. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and saw that it was nine o’ clock on the dot, the attorneys must be arriving.
She emerged from the back of the house as the attorneys were climbing out of the car. A blonde woman, who looked no older than twenty-five, got out of the passenger’s side and a red haired man, who appeared to be in his late thirties, got out of the driver’s side.
She decided to meet them on the porch instead of trying to walk back through the yard again. She carefully made her way up the steps, waiting at the front door and watching the two of them make their own way to the house.
“Ms. Stacey?”
She held her hand out, “Yes, and you are?”
He smiled while the blonde pulled out a key ring with only three keys on it, and took her hand.
“I’m Michael Kemp and my associate here is Amanda, Mandy, Hasscal. She’s merely here to ensure all the paperwork is taken care of.”
Catriogwyn shook Kemp’s hand, and then Amanda’s.
“While it’s nice to meet you both, I’d just as soon get this reading under way. There is still a lot to do to make sure everything is handled properly. You know, the funeral arrangements and the like?”
Kemp gave a sympathetic smile as Mandy unlocked the door.
“Of course, my dear, of course. Shall we head inside so that we can begin?”
Catriogwyn gave a short nod and followed Mandy inside, Mr. Kemp right behind them. Mandy led her through the huge living room into a slightly smaller kitchen with a small table and four chairs.
“We thought you’d be more comfortable here rather than at the big table in the considerably larger dining room,” Mandy explained as she set a folder down on the table.
Catriogwyn’s gaze took in the bright yellow kitchen, with its cheery wallpaper and small window over the sink. There was an island in the middle of the room and a sliding glass door to the backyard behind the table. The appliances looked to be almost brand new. The refrigerator wa
s one of those state-of-the-art models with the side by side doors and the ice and water dispensers.
When her gaze returned to the table and Mandy, she noticed that Kemp wasn’t in there with them.
“Where did Mr. Kemp go?”
Mandy stopped arranging the papers from the file on the table and looked at her.
“He went to collect the items that are mentioned in the will.”
* * *
CHAPTER 9
Catriogwyn had a seat at the table and watched as Mandy organized the paperwork she’d spread on the tabletop.
“You mean the items weren’t stored at your offices or in a safety deposit box?”
Mandy’s hands stilled and she straightened from reaching for her briefcase.
“That’s not what the client wanted. She wanted everything left with the estate until the reading was done and they could be handed over to the intended. I believe that’s why she wanted the reading done here.”
Catriogwyn nodded, mulling that over. It made sense, in a way, that Prudence would want her belongings in one place. It may have seemed easier to her.
Kemp walked into the bright kitchen as Catriogwyn was getting ready to respond to Mandy.
“Ah, I see the paperwork is ready. Ms. Stacey, are you ready to proceed or would you like a tour of the property?”
She considered the options for a few moments before answering, “I think I would just like to get on with the proceedings. This has been a very trying time for me and I’d just as soon get this over with and start working on the other business I need to handle.”
Kemp nodded and had a seat, holding his right hand out to Mandy for the paperwork.
“As you wish, Ms. Stacey.”
He shuffled through the paperwork, looking for something in particular.
“Here it is. As you know, I’ve worked closely with your Great-Aunt for the last five years. She’s changed this will a few times over those years, but one thing has remained consistent: you.”
