Chapter Twelve
Seb didn’t like loose threads. All the way to the police station, he gnawed at the potential significance of the missing box of NOS. Officer Keydew said he’d be there between midnight and six. It was just after midnight now. Without any obvious connection with his murders, the missing nitrous oxide carton would have to be filed for now.
He found the young officer sitting on the steps to the police station, sipping at a paper cup of coffee. A breeze carried the scent of caffeine and human to him…and nothing more. It put Seb instantly on alert. He was certain he’d smelled vampire when the male first appeared. The inconsistency made him uneasy.
He’d learned to mistrust inconsistencies. They hid other things. Usually much, much worse.
He decided to go on the offensive, growling, “How did you do that? How did you disguise your odor that fast?”
“Your mentor didn’t tell you about that?” The boy’s fresh face didn’t change, but his smug smile shifted into that of a much older being. “At one hundred years of age, we can blow our bodies into mist, yes? At one thousand, we can rearrange ourselves into other shapes.”
“Mist, shapeshifting, and at four thousand, we have almost limitless healing. My mentor drilled all that into me when I first rose.” Seb didn’t bother to hide his irritation.
“Really,” the boy drawled. “And yet you don’t know how I hid my scent?”
Seb shut up. Keydew was treating him like he’d treated young Klaus. A flash of sympathy prompted him to say, “All right, teach me, then. How’d you do it?”
“The vampire power increases year by year.” He grinned. “At five thousand, we can rearrange our bodies at the deepest level. Like chemical makeup.”
“You’re saying you are over five thousand years old?”
The smile never wavered, but like the Cheshire Cat, around that grin the officer’s face flickered. For the barest instant, a black-haired giant as big as Seb sat on the steps, expression cynical and worldly wise. A second later the innocent blond boy was back, smiling beatifically. “I can do the same thing with my scent.”
Seb’s heart lurched. “Who are you?”
“A friend.” The boy laughed. “Or, mostly a friend. I have information for you, Seb of Ineb-hedj.”
“How the hell did you know that—?”
“Hush.”
The word was a dark hammer of compulsion, not enough to command a vampire of Seb’s age, but the fact that it had an effect at all impressed him enough to shut up and listen.
“Wise male. You seek a murderer. I tell you, that murderer is merely the puppet of another of our kind.”
“Who? Elias?”
Keydew laughed. “What did the magnificent Ancient One do to you all those years ago? It must’ve really sucked.” Then he shrugged. “Not Elias. I’ve been here in Meiers Corners for a few months now, watching. Something is happening. Something bad.”
“Yeah. Murder.”
“Worse, actually.” The face was the beaming boy’s, but the tone was far older, the flat acceptance of a male who’d witnessed things no one should ever have to see. “Would you shut up and listen? I’m telling you this because I have to leave town for a few days.”
“Convenient.”
“Hardly,” Keydew drawled. “Someone’s coming whom I’d rather not meet right now.”
“Who?”
“You’ll see.” Keydew’s lips twisted in a sly smile.
Seb definitely did not like that. “You wanted to talk, you angled for this meeting. Unless you have something to say besides slippery little hints—”
“Yes, yes, all right.” The boy set his coffee down and sat forward, elbows on knees, his hands clasped, the picture of earnest youth. “This business is all tangled threads. Even when you find the killer, that will not be the end.”
And he’d brought Brie into this? Seb gave a frustrated growl. “Speak plainly. Who is the killer’s puppet master?”
“Frankly, I’m not sure. This I do know. Ancients have gone missing recently. More than attrition would account for.”
Seb’s breath stilled. “We’re being hunted?”
“That’s my guess.”
“Why?”
“I’ve no idea.” Keydew’s face flickered a few more times from boy to man, both wearing an overdone expression of innocence.
“Tell me.” Seb put every bit of compulsion he had into his own voice.
The flickering stopped abruptly; the man’s face, just before it disappeared, looked shocked. Then the boy laughed. “That tickled.”
Disgusted, Seb turned away. “You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told. I really don’t know. Want to hear my suspicions? I’ll tell you, but only because it amuses me. You remember Gravloth rampaging through these parts a few years back?”
Seb spun back to gape at the young officer. Gravloth was a hated, feared Soul Stealer, a vampire who drank the blood of an ancient to absorb the ancient’s healing and strength.
Problem was, the older the vampire, the more the blood burned. Powerful, searing blood often drove Soul Stealers insane.
Keydew nodded. “You understand. Or rather, you will.”
And then the other male just…evaporated. Not blowing into mist or collapsing into a river of mist. It was as if his body was a sand sculpture blown away bit by bit by the wind.
Mist was a form vampires could only hold a few seconds at a time. Keydew had just done something harder for much, much longer. The power and concentration that implied was staggering.
Seb’s anxiety returned, his feet already carrying him away. Maybe he should have stayed, to get to the bottom of who Officer Keydew really was, because that shitload of power plus the insinuation that Keydew was over five thousand years old meant he was trouble, “maybe” friend or no.
This job was escalating out of control. He’d originally brought Brie into it because he was certain he could handle things, that she wasn’t in the least amount of danger. Now, he wasn’t so sure, and his uneasiness pushed him to be with her.
This once, he let his emotions get the better of him. He raced to Otto’s and barely slowed himself to human speed dashing inside and up the stairs.
He expected to find her asleep after a trying day. He’d seen what being back in this exasperating little town had done to her.
Instead, she was sitting atop the king-size bed, clad in a long sleep T-shirt, hollow eyed and wide awake.
…
I tried sleeping after Seb left. I was tired enough.
Crawling under the covers, I only turned restlessly. The bed felt empty. Wrong. I crawled back out and waited to get sleepy.
I was sitting that way when he returned. I didn’t think I looked that bad, but after a single glance he—well, he didn’t dash, it was faster than that—he shimmered from the door to the bed and pulled me into his arms.
My body warmed. Loosened. A warmth stirred in my belly, along with a corresponding tingle of interest between my legs. “No sex.”
I said it to myself, but he answered. “I wasn’t trying to arouse you. You’re as tense as a cable on the Brooklyn Bridge.”
I laughed. “It’s been a day.”
“Exactly. You’ve been up at least twenty hours. I have a solution. Lie on your stomach.” He released me to rise and stride toward the bathroom.
“But—”
“Trust me. You’ll like it.” He glanced over his shoulder with an expression of sympathy and understanding.
That empathetic expression arrowed straight to my heart, and I nearly yipped “Yes” like an eager poodle. In the nick of time, I remembered vampires could read minds better than an MRI and managed a scowl instead. “Are you going to tell me what happened at Dawn and with Keydew?”
“Are you going to lie on your stomach?” He disappeared into the bath, and I heard the zip and rustle of his personal kit bag.
Well, damn. Though I mostly trusted him, I didn’t quite trust myself.
But I definitely wanted to hear about Dawn and Keydew.
I settled myself on my belly, head turned to watch for him. When he returned, he carried a bottle of lotion, which he set on the nightstand.
“Now. Picture yourself somewhere you can relax. Utterly unwind. A hot bath, a summer beach, a quiet library sofa.” He climbed onto the bed beside me, a gravity well on the soft mattress rolling me toward him.
“Hey. You said you’d tell me what happened.” I reared up, annoyed.
“That’s coming. Tit for tat. First, you relax.” He straddled my hips.
His strong thighs, enveloping me, shot excitement through my body. “Relax, he says,” I grumbled. But I subsided onto my stomach and managed to picture myself on a warm, golden beach.
He rewarded me with, “What do you want to hear about first? Dawn, or Keydew?”
Good question. Dawn would mean hearing about Derek, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Maybe start small. I opened my mouth on “Key”—and then Seb dug gently into the knotted muscles of my shoulders.
Tension compressed under his grip, burned brighter for an instant, then disappeared. As he chased away ache after ache, I groaned. “That feels good.”
“Yes. So, Keydew?”
“You read my mind.” I might have drooled it.
“I didn’t learn much. He’s old.” He worked the kinks from my shoulders and kneaded his knuckles down the sides of my spine. With each inch I got more and more limp, until I was a Brie-shaped puddle.
“Yer ’mazin,” I mumbled, halfway to being in love. I was in deep trouble—and too relaxed to care. “Wha’ he wan’?” What did he want?
“To warn me. Now, I’m going to rub the lotion on your back.” The sound of a cap opening was followed by the glug of creamy liquid and the whisk of hands briskly rubbing together. The scent of lemongrass lulled me further toward sleep. “So I’ll be sliding my hands under your nightshirt. It’s to help you relax. Not sexual at all.”
Sure, no more sexual than your average ScrewTube or PornHub video, complete with wacka-chew-wacka music. Yet all I did was mumble, “’Kay.”
His big hands slid, warm and slick, along my hips. As he rubbed the lotion into my back, my muscle tension eased. Something else farther down was heating up and tightening.
“Roll over.” He removed his hands and tugged the back of my nightshirt down.
As I did, he dumped the more lotion onto one palm then climbed to his knees on the bed. A wave of lazy desire washed over me, thinking of the things he could do to me in that position.
I’d obviously lost my mind. I reached for what was left. “Keydew… He warned you? About what?”
“Tit for tat. Give me your leg.”
I tried to scowl, but he’d massaged most of my irritation away. “Fine.” I swung my leg toward him. He grabbed the ankle and set it on his shoulder. My heel rested on a thick, hard pad of masculine strength, awareness shimmering through me. I swallowed hard. “Now what?”
“Now a bit of something I learned in Sweden.” He slicked the lotion along my calf and lower thigh, rubbing a bit to work it into the skin.
“No. I meant what did Keydew warn you—ohhh.”
He’d joined his hands in a ring around my ankle—and started pushing his ringed hands down, keeping them tight.
It was utter heaven. As his hands passed along my calf to my knee, he wrung every bit of tension and pain from my muscles. Like his hands flooded my leg with goodness, leaving it clean and refreshed. I groaned. “That’s amazing.”
His smile this time held masculine smugness. He finished that leg, releasing my thigh where the nightshirt began, then set the leg gently on the bed. “Now the other.” He leaned over, got more lotion.
Raising my other leg I waved it in the air, forgetting I didn’t wear panties beneath my nightshirt.
“Brie.” Eyes clenched tight, he caught the ankle.
“What’s wrong?”
“You smell…” His chest inflated on a breath, expanding his chest from attractive to oh, my. Another, more insistent wave of desire flooded me. He swallowed hard. “Yes. That.”
“Sorry. It’s automatic. It doesn’t mean anything.” I couldn’t let it mean anything. “We should stop.”
“No. Just a moment.” A second deep breath, and his eyes opened. A faint red tinged his pupils, disappearing. He slicked the lotion onto my leg.
The red eyes…that had happened to Derek, too, when the sex was the best. Even as Seb wrung my other leg, the memory of his vampire peeking out made me squirm. I didn’t want to get involved with another bloodsucker, but I remembered my fantasy. In it, I’d asked Seb to not use his vampire wiles, and he’d complied. And in complying, he’d done the work to make an honest connection.
Utterly impossible.
Yet he’d just done it on a small scale. Willed away his vampire libido to continue a soothing massage.
That was super sexy. And opened me to the possibility that he might do more.
How would I know unless I tried?
Excitement skewered me at what I was about to do. Trying to school it out of my voice, I said, “Tit for tat. What did Keydew say?”
“He warned me that not everything was as it seemed.” He rolled his eyes. “I’d already figured that much out.”
“Poor Seb. You made it better for me. Let me make it better for you.”
I’m going to do it. I was going to give into this intense attraction. At the realization, my sex stung with hunger.
“Brie.” He stopped wringing, eyelids squeezing painfully tight. “I’m sorry. I can’t…” He started to get off the bed.
See? He cares enough to stop. Even if this doesn’t work, once won’t hurt. I’ll just get him out of my system.
Oh, hell. I wanted his touch and to touch him in return. I’d sort out later if it was the truth or not.
I snared his wrist, stopping him. “I’m more relaxed now. I can sleep—almost. I just need a little more soothing.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed visibly. Eyes still clenched, he asked, “What kind of soothing?”
“No-bite soothing.” Grabbing the hem of my sleep shirt, I tilted my hips to winch the cloth past them. “Skin-to-skin soothing.” I stripped the nightshirt over my head, threw it, and laid back on the bed, stretching out for his pleasure.
His eyes flew open. The instant they lit on my naked body they boiled blood red.
What have I done? My heart beat faster and my insides quivered. Part fear—and part excitement so sharp it drilled me clear through.
Those red eyes traveled down my body to my naked, hairless mound—and stuck.
“What?” I curled up to see if there was something wrong. His surprise unsettled me. Hadn’t he ever seen a shaved one before? What kind of vampire was he, anyway?
“I’m not sure what I was expecting.” His tone was touched with awe. “Tattoos or jewelry or even just dyed red and caramel to match your hair. But this…this naked, pure beauty…is even more stunning.”
A zing of oh yeah hit me low in the belly and groin. I had been thinking of getting a ring. After that tribute, maybe not.
“Skin to skin.” He stood, his chest pumping hard. “No biting?”
“No biting. Can you handle that?”
His mouth curved in a smile of masculine smugness, a challenge accepted. “Oh, that’s no problem whatsoever.”
I trembled at the promise of his eyes—and the even bigger promise of his nearly bursting zipper.
He stripped off his T-shirt. Oh, if I could have sketched him then. The bunch and release of biceps, the flare of lats, the way his abs stretched then rippled into a perfect double set of hillocks made me want to trace each with my pencil—and my tongue.
He paused, shirt crumpled in one big hand. “Must I act completely human, or is it just the biting you object to?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“This.” His body wavered, as if all the solid lines had shattered into individual dots. As if he’d become a Seb-shaped cloud of dust.
His jeans fell through to land on the floor with a thud of belt, the tee floating to land on top. A moment later, the dust snapped solid.
Seb was naked.
His cock jutted proudly from a background of bronze skin and black hair. I reached for it. It actually grew bigger, bobbing as if glad to see me. Smiling slightly, he came to the bed and let us both say hi.
My fingers closed around his thick, hard shaft.
“Brie.” My name on his lips was a low, almost inaudible groan. His cock throbbed beneath my palm.
Maybe I should have tried for a little foreplay, but after weeks of suppressed lusting after him, those hot kisses, and my fantasy on the way here, I was ready to combust.
I bent and slid my mouth over the head of his erection.
“Gods. You don’t have to do this.” He grabbed my ears, not pushing, but not pulling, either, his hands trembling as if he was caught in an internal war between the two.
I pulled off, long, slow, to the accompaniment of a louder groan from him. “What if I want to?”
“You wanted skin-to-skin contact.” His words were almost panted.
“I do. If we’re creative, we can get both done at the same time.” Hand around his cock, I used it to lead him onto the bed and lever him onto his back. When he was in place, I climbed onto his torso, pressing my breasts into those marvelous abs, and took the tip of him into my mouth again.
His belly rippled under me. My hips rose in the air behind me as his chest came up off the mattress. His strength made me hotter. This was a good idea. I’d have him out of my system in no time. I sank farther onto his shaft, letting my throat open slightly.
Hands wrapped around my hips. Big hands, strong and warm.
He touched his tongue to the place I burned for him.
A quiver of response threaded me. He teased me with a flick or two.
“Nice,” I purred.
I wasn’t prepared for the blazing heat and strength of the mouth that latched onto my sex.
“Ohhh.” Urgency bolted through my groin. In shocked reaction, I sucked his cock deep into my throat.
“Brie.” He began sucking and licking. Desire spread like a wildfire through my abdomen and thighs. Pulling my head off him before I choked, I grabbed his erection as if it was the only firmly rooted thing in the hurricane of urgency he was creating.
His thumbs pressed into my sex’s lips, parting them. His tonguing and sucking got more intimate. Bubbling need pooled bigger, pressed harder, swelling until it was almost agony.
Agony that would burst into glory with the touch of a fang.
No. I was not going to get blown away by lovemaking. Not going to confuse it with love.
“Seb…” I rasped a few desperate breaths. “Seb, not so fast…”
He thrust a finger into me. I shrieked as pleasure crested a small hill.
Then he got busy sucking again. I keened as small wave after wave trembled through me. In my arrogance, I’d thought without his vampire bite he couldn’t raise me to heavenly heights. I feared how wrong I’d been.
My breasts, lips, tongue, hell, my whole body swelled with pleasure, more than I’d ever felt before, more than I could stand.
Another second of this and I was going down. So I sure as hell was taking him with me.
I sucked him back down my throat.
He ripped an anguished, “Brie,” and began coming, hard tugs of his balls shooting his pleasure free.
Then his mouth clamped onto me—his big mouth sucking my whole pussy—and his tongue drove into me with fervor that he’d use to make love.
My eyes sprang wide open. He sent me skyrocketing, sucking until I was an aching mass of need, trembling on the cusp of an explosion like I’d never seen.
A single bold thrust of his tongue sent me over.
I came harder than I’d ever come in my life. My orgasm rushed through me, opening every vein and cell in my body as it went. Colors burst behind my clamped eyelids, brighter than a nova sun. As he shuddered the last of his climax onto my neck, I orgasmed so hard it hurt.
His mouth released me and I tumbled to the bed.
“Are you all right?” His voice was muffled through my thundering heartbeat, his hands turning me then petting me as if he was seeking physical wounds.
My chest heaved in great pants, my body was mottled with one helluva sex flush. I managed, “I’m fine.” My words were muffled to my ears.
“You screamed.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t prepared for the strength of that… I mean, you didn’t even use fangs.”
His gaze softened, seeing I was okay. He lifted me in his strong arms then settled me again with my head on the pillows.
I sank into them, my eyelids too heavy to keep open.
“You’re okay?”
“Mmm.”
But I wasn’t okay, not really. Hell, I’d had sex with him, and even without his vampire’s bite, that orgasm had rocked my world. Left me with a happy glow deep in my heart.
The kind of bliss that led to love.
I don’t love him, I told myself. Not from one orgasm.
Maybe not. If he got creative…?
His body dented the mattress beside mine, heavy enough that I rolled in beside him. He curled around me. Warm, feeling protected, I relaxed into him.
Don’t love him.
This cannot happen again.
I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
…
Seb lay with Brie nestled against him, stunned. That had been amazing. Better than amazing. Extraordinary. Something about her, her scent, her taste, the warm feel of her soft, smooth flesh, had catapulted that encounter into the best of his life.
He curled closer. Not to get her scent on him—he found he simply liked touching her. His heartbeat slowed, lulling him toward sleep.
Toward contentment.
Ignorant, unguarded contentment.
Damn it. Had all his centuries taught him nothing? He shook off his sleep. Emotions made him vulnerable. The only thing that had never failed him was work. The case. Think about the case.
He didn’t know if that vanishing shipment of NOS was mixed in with his murders, but it didn’t make him happy. Then, if Officer Keydew was correct, the killer was run by another man who gave the orders. He didn’t know if he believed the other vampire. The male seemed the kind who wove tangled webs for fun. He’d probably see complications where there weren’t any.
The new player was Derek. Brie’s ex was in New York, and young, according to the trucker Elwood.
So what’s next?
Seb would approach it as he did any case—one clue at a time. He still hadn’t ruled out Elias, or rather, Elias’s pawn. Unless the ancient had developed a way to emulate a youngling. There was a scary thought. While he couldn’t interview Alliance vampires here directly, he could get a feel for any war preparations under the guise of exploring the city with Brie. That would have to wait until the morning.
One more thing he could do tonight, though. The killer had begun his spree in Meiers Corners. He could call Camille and get the names of all the vampires living here. She’d be able to confirm who’d been here this past week—and more importantly, who’d been missing.
He tensed his muscles to get out of bed, to get his phone.
Brie shifted with a little moan and clang of bracelets. He immediately froze. She turned in his arms, pillowed her head on his chest, and snuggled in with a contented sigh.
Slowly, he relaxed his body. Gazed down at her candy-red and brown head, the soft blonde roots looking oddly vulnerable. She was everything he strived not to be, bright and messy and anything but calm.
And yet, nestled against him, she felt absolutely right.
He sighed and let his eyes close. He’d wait a little bit to call Camille, at least until Brie had rested well.
The sun was already up the next morning when Brie jerked upright. She turned to glare down at him.
“Tell me about Dawn Truck Lines.”