Sundown Investigations 1: East Side Story

by Cat Marsters

  “He’s a faery,” Rafa said, in the same tones one might say ‘child molester’.

  “Wait, is she sleeping with both of you?” Ruarc asked Jamie, who nodded wearily.

  “It’s a long story.”

  “And you’re judging me for fucking a faery?” Maria said.

  “Hey, I didn’t make you fuck me,” Ruarc said.

  “This is like a soap opera,” said Paige, sitting down and watching them like a spectator at a tennis match.

  “Well, you made me take your blood, maricón,” Maria snapped.

  “I hardly forced it on you! And what was I supposed to do, just sit there and let you bleed to death?”

  “Yes,” Rafa said, as if it was obvious.

  “You’re not getting any tomorrow, either,” Paige said. “What does maricón mean?”

  “Give me some and I’ll tell you.”

  “Why were you bleeding?” Jamie asked Maria.

  “Goblin attack,” Ruarc said distractedly.

  “Really?” Jamie looked fascinated. “What kind? Because I’ve never met one and I read their warrior caste has extra arms --”

  “I can’t believe what a geek you’re being,” Paige said.

  “It wasn’t a goblin who attacked me,” Maria said, “it was a faery.” She looked triumphant.

  “What a surprise,” Rafa murmured, taking a seat next to Paige, who scooted away, glaring at him.

  “This faery?” Jamie asked, indicating Ruarc.

  “No, but… what were you doing outside my club?” Maria asked him pointedly.

  “Getting beaten up by a goblin,” Ruarc said.

  “We should so have popcorn,” Paige said.

  “It was a Seelie faery who attacked her,” Ruarc told Jamie, who seemed to be the only sane one left in the room.

  “I thought you said it was a goblin.”

  “No, he attacked me.”

  “Aren’t goblins faeries?” Rafa asked.

  “No. Yes. They’re Wildfae,” Ruarc said irritably.

  “Why were you fighting it?” Jamie persisted. “Is there a war between the Wildfae and the Unseelie?”

  “God, I hope not.”

  “Or between the Seelie and the vampires?”

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “Seemed like it to me,” Maria muttered.

  “Always does,” Rafa told her.

  “Geez, you guys really do hate each other, don’t you?” Paige observed, at which point Rafa, Maria and Ruarc all glared at her.

  “Yes,” they said in unison, probably the only time a faery had ever agreed with a pair of vampires. But a voice in Ruarc’s head added the rider: You don’t hate Maria. You want to get her naked again.

  Dammit!

  Silence fell for a long second. Paige covered her mouth with her hand, but her eyes were laughing.

  “I have to go,” Ruarc said abruptly, weary beyond measure of anything with goddamned fangs.

  “Where?” Maria asked, sharply.

  “Away. I have to go and… be somewhere else.” He turned and headed for the door, desperate for fresh air and silence.

  “Some host you are,” Maria said from behind him, and Ruarc stopped.

  He turned.

  He faced the three vampires and the human and said, “I’d tell you you’re all welcome in my home, but you all know faeries can’t lie. So, I’m just going to leave. Believe me when I say I’m glad you’re all in here…”

  They looked confused.

  “…so long as I’m not.” He made a bow and slammed out of the door.

  Chapter Seven

  Ruarc.

  His name was Ruarc.

  And he wanted her naked.

  She’d heard his voice inside her head as clearly as if he’d said the words out loud. He could speak into her mind!

  A cold feeling crept over her. He could speak into her mind. Could he see into her dreams? Could he get into her dreams?

  Maria stood staring at the door in horrified silence for a moment, before she became aware of three sets of eyes burning holes in her back, and turned slowly.

  Rafa slow-hand-clapped her.

  “Oh, go to hell,” she snapped, and shoved past them to go up the stairs and scrub the smell of faery from her skin.

  The smell of faery. It was obscene. How dare they go around smelling people like that! She sniffed at herself. She didn’t smell of anything. She’d showered while Ruarc was out. She didn’t smell! Maybe it was some psychic thing they could sense on her. Rafa had an air of power about him: maybe he’d read it from her or something.

  But no -- it’d been Paige who realized it first. Who’d scented it!

  She turned the shower on to scalding and ransacked the bathroom cupboard for anything that might make her smell different. All she came up with was a shampoo that smelled like Ruarc.

  Dammit.

  Half an hour later, her hair triple washed and her body scrubbed until it was raw, she emerged wrapped in a towel to find Paige sitting on Ruarc’s bed, reading a magazine.

  “I swear, these fashion specials get worse and worse. I mean, who looks good in pale green?”

  She looked up, saw Maria wrapped in a towel that color, and rolled her eyes.

  “Okay, you do. Green makes me look undead.”

  “Uh,” said Maria. “You are undead.”

  “Yes, but I don’t necessarily want to look it.” Paige put down the magazine. “Jamie’s gone to find someone to eat, if you’re hungry. What with time differences and all, it’s been daylight for far too damn long for me. I’m only a fledgling.”

  Maria clutched the towel around herself. “You seem close to Rafa,” she hedged.

  “Hah, yes.” Paige absently figured an ugly scar on her neck. “Well, it’s complicated.”

  “I seem to be hearing that a lot lately.”

  “Yes, I’d imagine.” Paige watched Maria move around, opening the closets she’d explored earlier in search of a clean shirt, then said, “So, you’re sleeping with a faery.”

  Maria nearly choked. “What the hell? I showered and everything!”

  Paige laughed, looking blonde and beautiful as she did. “It’s written all over your face. Honey, I’m not judging you. Ruarc is gorgeous. And he seems a nice guy.”

  He invaded my dream. My very intimate dream! “A -- wait, are you sure you’re a vampire? Aren’t we supposed to hate faeries?”

  “I don’t know.” Paige eyed her keenly. “Are we?”

  Maria felt heat flush through her. Truth was, she’d never had it explained to her. Didn’t even know she was supposed to be the Great Enemy of the Fae until Breslin had put her in a cage with one. Although she sure as hell wasn’t particularly well disposed toward the faery that had snuck into her dream and fucked her brains out.

  Although, when she thought of it like that, she wasn’t entirely sure why.

  She was saved from having to think of an answer by the intercom buzzing.

  “Ooh.” Paige jumped up. “Lunch.”

  Curious, and quite willing to distract herself from the horribly confusing thoughts she was having about Ruarc, Maria donned a shirt and followed her out to the mezzanine.

  “I can’t believe you can do this online,” Jamie said, looking up at them.

  “She’s probably a cop,” Rafa said, closing an expensive-looking laptop.

  “Well, then, you can have the pleasure of doing a mind-wipe.”

  Maria’s eyes widened. How powerful was this guy?

  Paige caught her eye. “He’s a Master,” she said. “There’s lots he can do.”

  “So… if you can mind-wipe anyone, why do we need a hooker?” Jamie asked, throwing a stake up in the air and catching it backhanded. Maria watched it, transfixed, until his words sank in.

  “You hired a hooker?”

  Both men shrugged. Paige rolled her eyes again.

  “Yeah, I know. But they’re less likely to ask questions,” she said, “they’re more willing to go to a stranger’
s apartment, and they’re not going to report any strange wounds.”

  “Plus, you can have sex with them afterwards,” Rafa said, and Paige wagged her finger at him.

  “Oh no, you don’t. No sex with hookers. Geez, Rafa, she could have any kind of disease.”

  “Which we, as vampires, are immune to,” he said, as if it was obvious. Maria, who hadn’t actually known this, filed it away mentally for further use.

  “But Jamie isn’t. Say you fuck her, and catch something disgusting, you could give it to Jamie. You can be a carrier without actually suffering from it.”

  Rafa scowled at her.

  “Plus, remember how you’re supposed to be not having sex with the people you bite?” Jamie reminded him, still throwing and catching the stake. “As an example to your beloved fledgling?”

  Paige gave him a sunny smile.

  “Well, someone better let me fuck them,” Rafa said moodily. His eyes roved over Maria, who tugged her shirt down nervously.

  “No,” Paige said, descending the stairs as someone knocked on the door. “You’ve been mean enough to Maria. Don’t treat her like a whore.”

  Maria, who in other circumstances would have been more than happy to get sweaty with the gorgeous vampire, gave a vigorous nod, and the corner of Rafa’s mouth turned up in amusement. He strode to the front door, opened it, and grabbed the girl standing there.

  Maria had a glimpse of pale skin and lots of eyeliner before Rafa tipped her head to one side and sank his fangs into her throat.

  “So much for foreplay,” Paige sighed, pushing the door closed. “At least let the poor girl sit down.”

  The ‘poor girl’ was clinging like a limpet to Rafa, making tiny moaning noises, and grinding her hips against him. Her short trashy skirt rode up, revealing a total lack of underwear.

  “Class,” Jamie said.

  “Hooker,” Paige reminded him. She grabbed Rafa’s head, yanked it away from the girl. “Rafa. Do not fuck her.”

  He licked his lips, his eyes wild, but nodded unsteadily and pushed the girl toward Paige, who gave her a gentle hug and led her to the sofa.

  “What’s your name, honey?”

  The dazed girl licked her lips. “Aphrodesia.”

  Rafa snorted. Jamie hid a laugh. Paige just asked patiently, “Your real name?”

  “April.”

  “April. Well, sweetheart, what did Jamie tell you when he hired you?”

  “Jamie?” April seemed to focus properly for the first time. She looked around, saw Jamie leaning against the wall, stake tucked out of sight in the back of his jeans, and Maria standing on the stairs, then glanced back at Rafa and finally Paige. “What? I -- no. He didn’t say anything about a threesome.” She looked at Maria and Paige again. “A, er… fivesome. That’s extra.”

  “Of course, sweetie,” Paige said soothingly. “Whatever you want. But it’s only me and Rafa.” She indicated him as he sat down on April’s other side, and April’s eyes glazed over again.

  Jamie met Maria’s gaze and rolled his eyes. But as Paige brushed April’s matte black hair away from her neck and lowered her head, his attention snapped back in their direction.

  Paige bit into the other side of April’s neck, as Rafa re-opened the wound he’d made earlier. April, pulled back against Rafa’s chest as Paige straddled her, was making the soft moaning noises again.

  Maria, feeling voyeuristic, crossed the room to Jamie and said in a low voice, “Don’t you mind?”

  He shrugged, but his shoulders were tense. “They have to feed. And since we don’t have any bagged blood available, it has to be a real person. Don’t worry,” he took the stake from his back pocket and twirled it, “I won’t let them take too much.”

  “You’ll stake them?”

  “Of course not. But it generally acts as a decent reminder.”

  He sauntered over to the threesome on the sofa. Paige, Maria couldn’t help but notice, was rubbing her breasts over April’s, and her hand was stroking Rafa’s smooth scalp as he drank. As she watched the undeniably erotic tableau, her own temperature rose. Jamie, she saw, was starting to look uncomfortable in his jeans.

  When Paige’s hand started creeping under April’s skirt, however, he pulled her away.

  “No, sweetheart. No sex while you’re feeding.”

  She looked up at him with dilated pupils, her lips swollen and red, her hands already tugging at his t-shirt. “But I’m not feeding now,” she purred, rubbing herself against him.

  “No, you’re not. But Rafa is.”

  Maria’s attention duly switched to Rafa, who had April’s skirt pushed up around her waist and his fingers delving into her pussy. Maria’s own cunt clenched. Damn, but she wanted to join in. She had no desire to feed with Ruarc’s potent blood still rushing through her veins, but with two hot men and the scent of sex in the air, she couldn’t help being turned on.

  Her mind drifted again, back to the harem, back five years to when she first saw the faeries together. Ruarc, another male and a female, brought out into the central garden where all the other inmates could see them. The three of them tall, pale and beautiful, licking and sucking and fucking each other for hours on end. She’d been so wet, just watching them, had hid at the back of her cell and touched herself, fingered her pussy and squeezed her breasts as the cries of the three faeries got louder and louder.

  Now she was getting a repeat performance, as Rafa left the stunned April lying on the sofa and knelt down in front of the chair Jamie had appropriated. The human was sitting back with Paige in his lap, rising and falling on his cock. They were both still mostly dressed, Paige’s skirt rucked up around her waist and Jamie’s hands pulling off her top, working at her bra. Her back was to him, her fangs biting into her own lip.

  Maria shifted, her pussy lips rubbing together, slick and hot. The soft fabric of Ruarc’s shirt caught against her sensitized nipples.

  As she watched, Rafa slipped Paige’s thighs over his shoulders and bent to lick her pussy. Paige cried out, and Maria bit her own lip to keep from doing so. It looked good -- it looked so good -- and from the way Jamie was writhing beneath Paige, she could tell he was getting licked too.

  Maria’s pussy throbbed. She wanted to be touched so badly, but she couldn’t do it to herself, not in public. Not with other people watching. Being on show. Being touched, bitten, fucked for someone else’s enjoyment.

  But this wasn’t like being fucked in the harem. This was three people intent on giving each other pleasure.

  When Paige came with a loud cry, her whole body convulsing under Jamie’s gentle hands, Rafa stood up and fed his cock into her mouth. She leaned forward, grabbing his hips and sucking him right down as Jamie continued to thrust into her pussy. Above his harsh breathing Maria could hear the slick slap of flesh as the three of them writhed and bucked.

  Her whole body was tight, desperate to be touched. Her nipples puckered against the shirt, the soft fabric rubbing with a terrible friction. Every tiny movement of her hips sent spasms of pleasure through her whole body. Her teeth nipped her lower lip, sharp fangs that drew blood, heightened her awareness. The sense-memory of Ruarc’s hands, his mouth on her, made her dizzy, so turned on she could hardly stand.

  When Rafa came with a roar in Paige’s mouth, then dropped to his knees to tongue her breasts while she rode Jamie, Maria couldn’t stand it any longer. She raced back inside Ruarc’s bedroom, locked the door and slid down to the floor, tearing at her shirt, squeezing her own nipples, easing the ache there. One hand dipped between her legs, parted her folds and found her throbbing clit.

  She stroked herself twice, three times, and came, shuddering with relief.

  Opening her eyes, still trembling, the first thing she saw was Ruarc’s bed. The bed where she’d bitten him and he’d fucked her to an explosive orgasm.

  Just like he had in her dream.

  He’d invaded her dream. And she’d let him.

  Maria’s teeth clenched, her afterglow fading rapidly.
From outside the bedroom, she heard the cries and groans of the threesome on the sofa, but they weren’t distracting her any more. Her mind went back to Ruarc, and how he’d licked and sucked her over and over until she’d begged -- begged! -- him for more.

  Smart, Maria, very smart.

  Chapter Eight

  “Who sent you?”

  Already keyed up with anger, Ruarc spared the goblin nothing as he shoved it against the rough wall outside the club where he’d been attacked last night.

  “Who,” he grabbed one of its arms and slammed it repeatedly against the wall, “sent you?”

  The dagger fell from the creature’s hand, slimy blood dripping from its skin. “Won’t tellll you,” it hissed.

  Ruarc pushed his face up close against the goblin’s, stared right into its huge glassy black eyes, breathed in its foul stench. First Maria, then those bloody vampires from Rome, and then halfway through his cursory examination of the jazz club he’d been attacked by another slimy, putrid goblin.

  “You will tell me,” he said through clenched teeth, “or I will rip off your appendages one by one. Starting,” he shoved his knee between the creature’s bowed legs, “here.”

  The goblin’s eyes widened in horror, but it still shook its head.

  “You were sent to kill me?” Ruarc asked, contemplating pushing his thumbs into the creature’s eyes. It nodded, trembling. “On whose orders?”

  I’d like to say mine, but in truth I’d rather kill you myself.

  The voice in his head wiped out any response the goblin might have made. Because it was Maria’s voice. And if she’d heard what he’d just said out loud, she had to be close. He hadn’t even realized how dark it had become.

  Where are you?

  Right behind you.

  Before he could move, could even breathe, something hit him hard and sharp between the shoulderblades. Smashing into the goblin, he slithered down to the ground, momentarily winded.

  “How dare you,” Maria’s voice was tight, “how goddamned dare you invade my dream?”

  Oh. Fuck.

  She stood over him, wearing nothing but his shirt, her legs long and bare and gleaming in the low light from a streetlamp. The orange light lent her mussed hair a hellish glow, compounded by the flash of her eyes and the snarl revealing her fangs.