by Megan Hawke
"Oh, okay," he said.
"Put it face down in the cubicle next to Roger's, and don't say a word about it to anyone," I said. "Not even to me. Then wait five minutes, and call Roger over to your cubicle. Tell him I have to leave because you can all get in trouble by me being there."
"Okay."
I walked over to Roger's cubicle. He was still on the phone, busy typing in notes of everything he said and did. It took about five minutes, then he finished up and removed his headset.
"Why are you really here?" he said. His heart was pounding out of control. He suspected that I suspected, I suspect.
"Good news, bad news," I said. I shrugged, acting guilty and ashamed. "Good news, the killer is dead."
"Dead?"
"Trudeau Family werewolves raiding the club tonight, and killed both Gustav and Philip. One of them was the killer," I said. "Bad news, they killed some of your friends at the club. I hope it doesn't close because of what happened tonight. I know you really loved that place."
Roger gawked at me a long moment, then almost smiled. Instead, he got a sad look on his face.
"Who died?"
"Well, Gustav and Philip, for one. Only one of them was the killer," I said. "I'm not sure who else is dead. I wasn't there, but the Trudeau Boss called me and let me know it was over."
"I'm glad they got the killer, but it is sad others had to die, too," he said. He let out a breath, and smiled. "At least the killings have stopped."
"We should celebrate," I said. I looked around his cubicle. "You think anyone would notice if we got down and dirty in here?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Oh, shame."
"Are you two behaving in here?" Aaron said, standing in the next cube over and grinning at us.
"Yes," I said.
"If you were my girl we wouldn't be behaving at all," Aaron said. He looked at my boobs, licked his lips and left. "Does anyone know if they still sell milk in the vending machines?"
Roger's eyes got big as others around the room laughed. I laughed. The whole Got Milk thing was a joke anyway. Why wear the t-shirt if I can't take a few jokes?
"Hey, listen to this!" one of the other techs called. "I have a manager on the phone that said his dominatrix won't print!"
"Oh, jeeze," Roger said, laughing.
"Tell him to spank it!"
"Tell him to submit and ask nicely!"
"What?" I said. "I don't understand."
"The stores all have two printers," Roger said. "A laser printer in the back office for reports, and a dot matrix logger printer that records all transactions."
"Oh, I get it. Yeah, that's funny."
"Rippner!" Aaron called.
"I'll be right back," Roger said.
I gave him a moment, walked over to the next cubicle and found the print out. My heart started racing. My hand trembled as I read. The impossible could be true.
I looked around. Roger was in Aaron's cubicle. He was looking my way and frowning. I guess he didn't like what Aaron was telling him. I still had a moment, so checked the dates again.
Roger had called off, or had off, the night of every murder. Even the night I was his alibi. That meant he was killing Penny while I was waiting for him in front of his house. The black bags of blood he "bought" and brought home that morning were Penny's blood.
"Oh Jesus, forgive me," I murmured. "I've been drinking their blood, too."
Maybe for the first time as a vampire I felt nauseous. My throat tightened even more, and I couldn't control my heart rate. My hands trembled so hard I could barely fold the printout and stuff it in my pocket.
"Where's Roger?" a young man said. I don't think he cared where Roger was. He was there to look me over, up close and personal.
"He's over...well, he was over in Aaron's office," I said. Roger wasn't there. I reached out with my vampiric senses and found Aaron. He was just sitting there in his cubicle without thought. Mesmerized and forgotten, but not by me. "Dammit, Roger knows."
"Knows what?"
I took off running for the door. Pulling my phone, I called Dane.
"Dane, Roger is on to us," I said. "He slipped away while I was distracted."
"Figures," Dane said. "We found some damning evidence against him at his house."
"What?"
"Vanessa Wicker's silver Camry is parked out front," he said. I remembered seeing that car, but didn't know it was Nyssa's. "And he has fresh human blood stored in black bags in his refrigerator. I bet it belongs to the victims."
"I suspect you're right," I said. I sighed wearily. This was the worst possible outcome I could image. Queasy, timid Roger had turned into a killer. "I think Roger's on the run now, but get back to Kale's house as quick as possible. I think we need you and Heidi there for the protection of the others, at least until daybreak."
"Should we call the Trudeaus?" he said.
"You call them. I can't stomach Mercedes' voice anymore," I said. "I'll see you at the house."
I called the house next. Kale answered.
"Kale, it's Sable," I said.
"Great," Kale said. "What are we supposed to do? Is it safe yet?"
"Do? About what?" I said.
"Roger was just here," he said. My heart sank. Cold filled my soul. "He said Gustav was after Sabrina, and you sent him to take her to safety."
"Oh God," I said. "Oh God, no. He took her?"
"Well, yes," Kale said. "Is there something wrong?"
"Roger is the killer!"
Chapter 16
I got home in record time. Somehow, I managed to do so without wrecking Desiree's car. There were a few close calls.
Dane beat me there, so Kale, Desiree, and Heidi were waiting with him. They were all completely beside themselves with worry.
"Did Roger say anything to indicate where they were going?" I said. "Anything at all."
"No, no, no," Desiree said, pulling at her hair and face wet with tears. "He was going to protect her. Oh God, we didn't know."
"It's not your fault," I said. Everything was going so well. And then he just vanished. "It's mine. I tipped him off somehow."
"Does he have a bolt hole?" Dane said.
"Probably. I don't know where. We never discussed it," I said. I cast out with my vampiric senses. Nothing. I didn't have a link with my sister. Establishing a link would've been an invasion of her psyche. Too intimate. Just wrong. "Without a link, I'll never find her."
"Hmmm," Heidi said, suddenly looking guilty.
We all turned to her. She began to fidget and squirm.
"Oh my God, you have a link with Sabrina?" I said. "You bit her? You bit my sister!"
"No! I mean, yes," Heidi said. "You didn't say I couldn't, and she asked me to."
"She asked?" I said. My mind was reeling. Why would my sister ask to be bitten? She wasn't a thrall? Our family was very much against vampires and their subculture. "Why?"
Heidi shrugged. "I don't know. We were making out in the shower Thanksgiving night, after Boney left, and she asked me what it was like. And then she asked me to bite her. I did."
"And you created a link?"
That meant Heidi could always find Sabrina. She would know what Sabrina was feeling. Know when she was in danger or having sex. Heidi would always know everything about Sabrina. In a very real way, Sabrina now belonged to Heidi.
"What kind of link did you establish?" I said.
Heidi shrugged. "I don't know. What kind of links are there? I'm new to all this."
"Do you know where she is right now?"
In response, Heidi lifted her hand and pointed south.
"Get in the car!" I commanded. "We're going to find Sabrina, and then I'm going to grind Roger into the dirt."
"Arm yourself first," Dane said.
I put on my shoulder holster with the Glock 31, and another holster for a baby Glock off the back of my belt, then shoved extra magazines for both pistol in my back pockets. It only took a few minutes.
"You two go visit Brandon unti
l this is all said and done," I said to Kale and Desiree. "Just to be safe."
We took Dane's Jeep. Heidi rode shotgun, so she could give directions. Before long we were barreling down Preston Road. It didn't take long before I realized where we were headed.
Sabrina's apartment.
"Son of a bitch! Roger killed off all of them but Nessa in their own apartments," I said. "He really intends to kill her!"
"She's very calm," Heidi said.
"Mesmerized?"
Heidi concentrated, frowned. She nodded. "Yes! I thought that feeling felt familiar." She stopped and gasped, clutching at her bosom. "Oh, my. Sabrina just got so damn horny. Oh my God, I think they're having sex."
"Shit, he's started," I cried.
My wings exploded out of my back, ripped through the t-shirt and leather jacket. They grew out of my back straight up and through the canvas roof of Dane's Jeep. I ripped open the roof from side to side, then leapt straight up as hard and high as I could. My wings were flapping before I reached the full height of the jump, and I angled more to the east.
I headed for Sabrina's apartment as the crow flies.
Those giant wings were a godsend. No question in my mind. I flew faster than I ever dreamed possible, driven by desperation. I kept just above the treetops, not wanting to waste time flying higher.
When her apartment came into sight I knew I called it right. It was still a crime scene, sealed with police crime scene tape, but the living room lights were on. I felt a warm body inside. Her heart was racing, she was aroused. A few seconds later I saw two people on the couch. Seconds later I recognized Sabrina and Roger. And then I flew through the living room window.
"Roger! I'm going to rip your head off!" I cried.
Roger was naked. Sabrina was naked, except for the red rope. He had hogtied my sister. She lay face down on the couch, face on the middle cushion and legs draped over the back. Roger was behind the couch, screwing her hard from behind.
On the first joints of my wings were eight inch long spikes. They were probably talons or claws, but since they were straight and came to a wicked point, I called them spikes. I thrust my right spike deep into his chest, right through his heart.
"Uuuuuugggaaaiii," Roger cried, throwing himself backwards and off my spike. "It's your fault!"
"My fault?" I cried. "You sick bastard, you can't lay your bloodbath on me."
"I was fine until you came into my life and got me all fired up," he said. He wings erupted, and he drove his ten inch spike into my belly, and threw me against the far wall. "I couldn't take it!"
"Let's see how you take it when I smash my fist through your heart," I snarled. "You want to rape and murder my sister, which means you have gone rogue. I have to kill you now."
"I don't think so," he said, and his erotic power rolled out. It sucked the air from my lungs. His power always overwhelmed me, always drove me deep into an erotic place I was eager to enjoy. "Kneel to your master, Sable."
My wings were sucked back into my body as my belly quivered and mind spun. I did not want to fall under his spell, but it was so alluring. Roger's power had always been the sweetest surrender I had known. It was like a sanctuary I could go to and not be the ball busting vampire slayer, Black Heart. A place I could be weak and submissive, not make any decision and be taken to the heights of passion and pleasure.
"I will not submit to you this time," I growled.
Sabrina was back in control of her facilities. Her eyes were huge as she watched us. Roger's power was overwhelming her. She was filling the air with her needs and desires because of his supernaturally charged pheromones. Her needs and desires were stoking both mine and Roger's libidos.
"Kneel!" Roger cried, pounding me with his power.
"Oooh," I groaned, falling to my knees.
Warmth and wetness and an erotic tingle attacked my nether regions. Butterflies battled in my lower belly and molasses claimed my mind. Up until that night, it was something I looked forward to experiencing, over and over for hours on end. I've never really tried to fight it before.
Sabrina started climaxing. Mortals couldn't withstand it as well as the undead. That said, I wasn't far from orgasm myself. If I climaxed, it would be the end of me. Roger would have absolute control over me. His power would own me. Sabrina's climaxes didn't help me, at all.
I could feel the couple living behind Sabrina starting to screw like hellcats. Half the apartments around us were occupied, and everyone was affected by his power. Couples were making love, friends were screwing, and anyone alone was masturbating furiously.
"This is what you brought out in me," Roger said. "Before I met you, this never happened. Hell, I never got any. All I had was my time at The Crimson Knot, tying up the prettiest girls in the club."
Roger laid his hand on Sabrina's butt, and her body exploded with machine gun climaxes. Her eyes rolled up and she groaned around that bright yellow ball gag in her mouth. Drool was dripping down her chin. I could feel every climax through my vampiric powers.
Roger turned to me and smiled. He relaxed his powers for a second. It was enough. I surged to my feet and pounded an elbow across his face. He flipped over the couch and smashed the coffee table.
I leaped over the couch, but he caught me with his feet and flipped me out the window. I fell two stories and landed on my back on the cool grass below. Four college age kids were going at each other in the grass, just a few feet from me. Two young men were frantically getting it on with two young women.
A little distance helped immensely. I was raging horny, but I still had control of my senses. He couldn't control me so thoroughly from just twenty or thirty feet away. It was good to know there was a limit in range for his power.
I pulled my pistol and leaped through the window. Pistol in both hands, I sought him as my target the second I passed above the window seal. He saw me and yanked Sabrina up before him, to shield him.
"Bastard," I cried. "Stop hiding behind women, you sissy pig."
I landed on the couch where Sabrina had lain, and Roger promptly thrust kicked me in the face. I didn't know he had any training in the martial arts. The kick in the head, followed by the back of my head slamming into the window seal left me stunned.
Roger dropped Sabrina on the floor, and leaped over the couch. He grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, and my belt, and started spinning around and around. When he let go I flew across the apartment and through the wall. And blackness engulfed me.
When I woke up, Roger had my jacket and shoulder holster off, and was pulling my top off. Even unconscious, his power was working me over. I didn’t fight him at all, and the Got Milk t-shirt came right off. That left me sprawled on the bed in jeans and bra.
His power consumed me. I no longer cared what was going to happen. Carnal pleasure was all I cared about.
"After we have one more scene together, I'm going to suspend both you and your sister in the living room. Face to face so you can watch each other die," Roger said.
He leaned over and kissed me. Kissed me deep and hard, and sent his power through that kiss, through me. I climaxed instantly. My back arched and I groaned wantonly, wrapping my arms around his neck and hanging on desperately.
"You awoke that power you feel so profoundly," he said, rather viciously I thought. But I didn't care. "I was just beginning to make overtures to my friend Angela. She was receptive. You gave me confidence, so I went for it." His powered died suddenly. I realized he was consumed with grief. "She invited me into her apartment after our first date, for coffee. I knew better than to tempt fate, but I went in. We started making out on her couch, and suddenly my power exploded."
"And she understood that you were a vampire at that time," I said. "So you killed her?"
"I had to! She panicked. She would've outed me," Roger said. "Oh, she was so ticked off at me. She threatened me. I had no choice."
"And the others?" I said, weak but regaining strength fast. Just had to keep him talking, keep him thinking about what
horrors he'd done. "Why kill them?"
"Denise figured it out somehow," Roger said. "She called me and said she was going to tell everyone, including the police. So I flew straight over and, you know the rest."
"Whitney? Did she figure it out, too?"
"No, that witless slut didn't know or care," he said. "But she knew I was dating Angela, and that I took her out on the night she was murdered."
"All the girls did, didn't they?" I said. Which would explain why Penny, Nessa and Sabrina all had to die.
"Yes, they all knew. I had to kill them before they realized it," he said.
"You're a monster," I said, and sank my fangs into his throat.
Roger screams like a little girl. Gustav and Philip can sit around and laugh at my reactions to being brutally whipped, but Roger really screamed like a school girl when I bite him. He jerked back, causing me to rip his throat open. Blood spout everywhere.
And Roger threw up. What did Roger have to throw up? Well, blood. That was one sick puppy, throwing up all over the place as he staggered out of the bedroom.
I got up and stalked after him. I wasn't worried about his power anymore. I had the antidote. Blood. All I had to do was bleed.
"I ought to tie you up and bleed you out," I said.
Heidi jumped through the smashed window. Roger reached down and picked up my pistol and shot her. She yelped and fell down. Young vampires couldn't take being shot with sanctified silver as well as older vamps.
"Mother fucker!" Heidi cried. "Sable, help me!"
Roger swung the pistol around to shoot me. I charged him, snatching up a dining room chair as I ran, and swung it around with all my strength. I knocked the pistol away before he could pull the trigger.
Dane started kicking at the front door to get in. That distracted him an instant, allowing me to get inside his guard. I tried to knife my hand up under his ribcage, but Roger twisted and cried out in terror. He shoved me aside, sprouted wings and tried to impale me on them. I dived aside and rolled to my feet, prepared to fend off his wing spikes, but he wasn't attacking any more.
"No!" I cried.
Roger had Sabrina in his arms. She was still hogtied and helpless. Without his power keeping her hot and horny, she understood exactly what was happening. Eyes wide, tears flowing she struggled weakly, ineffectually. Roger didn't look back as he ran to and jumped out of the window.
