by Mary Abshire
Veronica's soul jumped from her body and landed beside me.
"Veronica!" I yelled.
She looked at me in shock. I snatched one of her arms before she had time to move. I swung my balled fist and punched her in the nose. God, it felt so good to hit her. She whimpered and covered her nose with her free hand.
"This is your last chance." I tightened my grip. "Tell me where she is."
"Go to hell," she spat.
I glanced at Drake. He stood at my side with blood coating his hands while he stared at Veronica's spirit.
"Funny you should mention Hell. That's exactly where you're going."
I dropped my jaw and released the silent call to her soul. She whined and struggled as her soul drifted into my mouth. I pulled her closer and inhaled deeply. Her ghostly image stretched into a long blur. As she slithered down my throat, the taste of sour milk brushed over my tongue. She nudged me inside. It felt like air bubbles, more or less. After half her soul had disappeared down my throat, I sucked in again. Her fight ended within seconds. The remains of her soul disappeared quickly.
The taste of rotten milk lingered on my tongue after I closed my mouth. Nauseated, I cupped my hand over my mouth. I refused to get sick now. Holding my breath, I leaned back against the car and steadied myself.
"Are you all right?" Drake asked with a look of wariness and fright.
I nodded, still covering my mouth. The revulsion would pass soon, quicker if I could distract my thoughts. I shifted my gaze to the ground and saw her lifeless body. The head wasn't nearby and I didn't want look for it. Seeing the headless body was enough.
Drake removed his shirt. His bare chest was a million times better to look at than a dead body. My putrid thoughts dwindled the more I stared at him. He wiped his bloodstained arms and the knife with his shirt. Blood smeared over his arms with each scrub, leaving them a light red hue. He folded the knife and slid it into his back pocket.
"Are you going to be all right?" His gentle tone prompted me to giggle. He'd decapitated a vampire, yet he wanted to know how I was. The man was so sweet.
I lowered my hand from my face. "I'll be fine. But I need a drink."
"Water?"
"Anything now would be nice."
He ran to the back of the car and popped the trunk. He reached inside and withdrew a bottle of water.
"Thanks." I took the bottle from his hand. As I twisted the cap, I stared at his bare chest. My mouth salivated at his firm muscles and nearly flat abdomen. The thin layer of dark hair and his hard nipples spiked my pulse. I struggled with the temptation to touch him.
Drake pulled out another bottle and handed it to me. "Hold this for me."
Smiling, I honored his request. He moved swiftly, gathering a black tarp from the trunk of his car, then covering Veronica's headless body. I shielded my eyes, not wanting to view all the blood or catch a glimpse of her head, wherever it was.
"I'll wait in the car," I said, keeping my eyes on my feet.
I sat in the passenger seat and shut the door. I could suck down an evil soul, but I couldn't help pick up the dead pieces. I'd never been near a dead body before, a dead-dead body. Aside from my mother's suicide, I'd never seen a person killed or destroyed in front of my eyes. The blood was real. The final resolution of the body was real. It hit home for the first time. We were all just biding time on earth.
The car shook, jarring me from my grim thoughts. I peered through the back window. The back of the trunk was tilted up, blocking my view. Maybe I was better off not seeing what Drake was doing. I twisted back around and drank more water. Seconds later, the car jerked with a soft thud.
Drake leaned into the driver's side. He dropped a folded red shirt and a brown towel on his seat. "Water?"
I handed him the bottle and he poured the liquid over his arms. When the bottle was empty, he tossed it into the dumpster a few feet in front of the car. He shook his hands in the air on his way back to the car. Before he sat, he dried his arms with the towel in his seat. While I watched him, I wondered how often he'd done this sort of thing before. He threw the towel in the back, then donned the red shirt.
"Do you do this often?" I asked as he slid behind the steering wheel.
"Do what?" he asked as if he didn't understand my question. He started the car and drove down the alley as if nothing had happened.
"Sever heads from vampires."
"What?" He sounded confused.
I grimaced at the thought of spelling it out for him. "You took, you cut, you removed…it." I babbled, struggling to get words out of my mouth.
"I have destroyed a few vampires before."
"I don't know how you do it," I murmured, eyes downcast, shaking my head.
"I do it because it is wrong to take an innocent person's life. God didn't put us on this earth to kill each other. It's not a perfect world, but we don't need to complicate it with mindless killing. I have known Veronica a long time. She had killed before, and I could see in her eyes that she didn't feel any remorse. It wasn't in her nature."
"And I agree with you, the world isn't perfect. But to remove a head or cut into someone's flesh…"
"Tissue and bones. Vampires don't feel pain the same way humans do."
"I'm just not used to seeing it. My experience has been with spirits, not flesh and blood."
Drake reached over and brushed my cheek with the back of his long fingers. His soft touch subdued me. He could charm humans with a flash of his eyes, but for me, the charm was in the touch, and he knew it.
One hand on the wheel, he swiveled his head from me to the road ahead and back to me again. "Until I met you, I never saw a spirit appear in front of my eyes."
"You saw them?"
"When you touched them, I saw them appear. Then I watched them disappear into nothing. It was different from the time I saw you in Louisiana. Their souls had not separated from their bodies."
His reaction clicked in my head. When I'd helped Aretha, I stood in front of their bodies, one by one, and caught their souls as their bodies died. Their spirits never had a chance to wander, so I didn't need to touch them. Tonight was a new experience for him. He truly hadn't seen a soul outside its skeleton.
"You said before that it frightened you."
"In a way, it does. You hold a great power I have never seen or heard about in my entire existence. You can hold others accountable for their crimes and send them to an eternity of Hell. It is frightening and yet incredibly admirable. I would not want you to come looking for my soul."
A teasing smile surfaced on my face. "Then I guess you better lead a life of righteousness, if vampires can do such a thing."
"You would be amazed at what we can do. Death wasn't an end for me. It was a new beginning."
His uncanny confession sent a wave of chills through me. The confidence in his voice and the way he perceived his death as good instead of bad led me to believe I had pegged him wrong from day one. He wasn't the big, bad vampire wanting to drain every human for blood. He was the opposite of everything I had believed about vampires. My heart did a double flip, inspired by a man with a noble soul.
"Drake," I said, gathering his attention. "I want you."
A smile spread across his face.
"As soon as we get back to the condo, I want you to make love to me, and I want it to be—"
The sudden acceleration of the car jerked my head back. He crossed over two lanes, then pulled off onto the side of the Interstate. It took less than a minute for him to find an alley. He braked and shifted into park so fast I had to brace myself on the dashboard. Surprising me even more, he grabbed both sides of my head and forced a kiss upon me. He ravaged me with his strong lips and fervent tongue. The intensity of his kiss overwhelmed me. I forgot how to breathe as I got lost in his kiss. My body temperature rose, and within seconds, I was ready to explode. I wanted him, all of him, until I caught a glimpse of lights flashing behind us.
I pressed my hands against his chest. Our lips reluctantly separ
ated. "We have company."
The car stopped behind us with its red and blue lights flashing.
"I'll take care of him."
"The trunk." I gasped. How could we explain a headless corpse in the trunk if the cops searched it?
Drake lowered his window. "I'll handle it."
A uniformed officer appeared at Drake's side, flashlight in hand. "Is there a—"
The officer stopped short his sentence upon meeting Drake's gaze. With wide, unblinking eyes, the cop took a step back. He gave a nod, then strode back to his vehicle.
Drake twisted in his seat and slipped his hand around my neck. "Now, where were we?"
My lips met his, but my body hesitated with the police lights as bright as a spotlight flashing through the window. Once again, I braced my hands on his chest.
"What about the fuzz?" I asked as his kisses traveled south.
"The what?" he mumbled with his lips pressed to my neck. One hand slithered up my blouse while the other hand glided under my skirt.
My pulse raced. Heat rushed through me as desire increased. The need to sate a carnal desire gripped me. "The police."
"He won't bother us."
"But…"
"He's our personal guard for a while." His hand slid between my legs and all my control flew out the window.
"Oh God, Drake," I breathed, consumed with a burning need. "I hope the camera is off."
Chapter Twenty
"I won't be gone long. It should take me no more than an hour and a half to dispose of it."
Drake stopped near the elevators in the underground parking garage of the condominium and let me out. He didn't want to leave me, but there was less chance of me getting sick in his car if he dropped me off. Plus, he didn't need my help to throw out the trash in the trunk.
I leaned through the window. "I'll clean up and wait for you."
More kisses delayed our intentions. The steamy sex we'd had in the car was incredibly satisfying. But with Drake, I couldn't get enough. I wanted more of his touch, his kisses, his cock driving deep into me… He seemed to want to appease me, so I was going to let him.
He broke off our tongue-tied kiss. "I'll try to hurry."
I backed my head out of the window. "Please do." I smiled.
The agreeable grin on his face assured me he would waste little time away from me. He drove away and I headed for the elevator. As I waited for it, I recalled the spook I'd gotten rid of on the fifty-ninth floor. Curious to know more about the ghost, I decided to make a stop at the front desk. After my ride arrived, I pressed the button for the main floor.
From the elevator, I made my way through the deserted lobby to the reception desk. A thin young man wearing a red vest uniform stood behind the counter, staring at a computer screen.
"Excuse me." My voice echoed in the empty lobby.
The clerk raised his head. "Can I help you?"
I rested my arms on the counter. "I'm staying with a girlfriend of mine on the fifty-ninth floor and I saw something…well, something unusual." I softened my voice to pique his interest. "I'm hesitant to mention it to her because I don't want to scare her."
The clerk's nametag on his vest read Scott. Scott swiveled his head from side to side as if he were searching for someone. I surveyed the lobby too and found no one else around. He leaned over the counter.
"Did you see him?" he asked.
"Tall man. Business suit. Slicked back hair," I described for him.
His eyes grew wide. "So you saw him?"
I stared at him while I began to wonder if Scott was a high school dropout. I was confident I had answered the question by giving a full description of the spook.
"He's a…" I quickly scanned the lobby again. "A ghost. Right?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it," he said with a low voice.
"I won't say a word to anyone. I promise," I said with sincerity. "Who is he?"
He shrugged. "Jonathan something. I can't remember. It happened before I came here. He strangled his wife and then committed suicide. Overdose is what I heard. The man was some kind of fancy lawyer. They say he helped a lot of people stay out of jail—drug dealers, pimps, politicians, anyone who was willing to pay the price."
"A real scumbag, huh?"
"You can't say I told you anything. I'd lose my job," he said with a hint of fear in his voice.
"I won't say a word and I wasn't here." I winked at him as I backed away.
He nodded and then resumed staring at the monitor.
I rode the elevator to Drake's floor while I thought about Jonathan. He'd been a lawyer. Interesting. So he was smart enough to know loopholes in the law to help criminals. What a dirt bag. He should enjoy his time in Hell.
My first order of business when I entered Drake's condo was to clean my body, especially my finger. The memory of Veronica tasting my digit still sickened me. Under hot water, I scrubbed my hands. I scrubbed so hard some skin peeled off. While I couldn't purge the memory of the event from my mind, at least I cleaned her residue from my skin.
After I stripped off my clothes, I took a hot shower. Shampoo bubbles slid down my body as the phone rang. I quickly rinsed the suds away, then grabbed a towel. The phone kept ringing while I quickly dug through my dirty clothes to find my cell. I didn't bother to look at the display when I answered the call.
"Hello." I clutched the towel in front of me, but water dripped from my body in rivulets and pooled at my feet.
"So what happened with the two bloodsuckers?" Jeremy asked.
I rolled my eyes and wished I'd paused to look at the caller ID. If I'd seen it was Jeremy, I would've let the call go to voicemail.
"We took Veronica for a drive to ask her some questions."
"Family business?" he pried.
"Yes."
"Is that why she was sucking on your finger?"
Damn! He'd witnessed it. "Uh…no."
"I think we would get along better if you filled me in on some details."
I looked at the puddles around my feet. I'd have to wipe the floor before Drake came home. "Can I fill you in on them another time?"
"Is he around?"
"No, actually. I just got out of the shower and I'm soaking wet right now."
"Now there's an image I'd love to see. Can I come over?" Eagerness prevailed in his tone.
"'Fraid not. Drake will be back soon." I hoped.
My phone beeped at me.
"Then you have time to chat." Beep. "If he's not there and you're standing there without any clothes on."
"Hold on. Someone is on my other line."
I held the phone down and looked at the number. Dani was on my other line. I switched over to her as Jeremy called my name.
"Hello."
"What's up, girlfriend?" Chipper as always.
"Hey, hold on a second. I have someone on my other line I need to get rid of."
"Holding," she replied.
I pressed the button for Jeremy. "I need to go."
"Not so fast. I gave you Betty Boop. I want to see you." The sharp edge in his voice led me to believe I couldn't put him off. Not this time.
"All right." I sighed. "How about an early dinner, say around four?"
"Meet me at the Rockit Bar on west Hubbard."
"I'll see you there at four," I confirmed, and then switched over to Dani's line. "Dani?"
"So…how are things are going?"
"Good. Pretty good."
"You sound relaxed and in good spirits. Did you hit it off?"
"Uh…" I pondered my response. If I answered with a yes, she'd want full details. If I said no, she'd suspect I was lying and get irritated with me. I didn't have the heart to do that to her. Female intuition already gave me away.
"Well?" she prompted.
Sensing this conversation might last a while, I wrapped the towel around me and sat down on the bed. "Yeah, you might say I hit it off with someone."
"Was it the hunk that picked you up? Because if it wasn't, I'm going to need
his number."
"Well…yeah," I admitted with a slight hesitation.
"You're kidding? Oh my God." She laughed.
I pressed the phone to my ear and held it with my shoulder while I wrapped the towel around me. "Yeah, well, no need to talk about it."
"Oh you are so full of it. I want details," she demanded.
"You'll have to wait until I come home."
"Oh Jessie, ple-e-e-e-ease."
Another beep on the line interrupted me.
"Hold on. I have another call."
"Holding."
I held the phone in front of me and checked the display. It was Sean. Happiness swirled within me.
"Dani, I have to take this other call. I'll talk to you later." I didn't wait for her response. With a fast moving thumb, I clicked over to Sean's line. "Sean?"
"I thought I might be interrupting you. I was about to leave a message on your voicemail."
The sound of his George Clooney voice had an instant calming effect over my soul. No matter what was going on in my life, talking to him and listening to his voice made all my troubles seem trivial.
"You should know by now your calls are never an interruption."
"I don't want to impose at this late hour." Again with the repentant tone.
"You never do."
Sean was a godsend to me. Though he never pretended to be a father, he filled the role when he took me under his wing, mentored me, and assisted me until I finished college. If my mother did anything right in her lifetime, it was leaving me with Sean on the day she decided to end her life.
"Care to tell me what you have been up to these last few weeks?" he inquired.
Since my conversation with Sean was likely to be a long one, I decided to leave the bathroom for a more comfortable place to sit. I headed for my bedroom, then sat on the bed as I told him about my last investigation with Dani, the spooks I had encountered, and how work consisted of the usual dull and boring tasks. He took it all in stride, laughing at times and cheering me on for sending more souls to where they needed to be. After I finished giving him an earful, he told me about his work in Pittsburgh, the usual tedious and mind-numbing legal preparation and court rituals of civil law. I chuckled a few times, provided a few sly comments, and offered my condolences. All laughter aside, we both were content with our current lifestyles.
