The Death Series, Books 1-3 (Dark Dystopian Paranormal Romance): Death Whispers, Death Speaks, and Death Inception

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  She didn't wait for me to respond. Michelle knew she had me, hook, line and sinker.

  I gathered up all my stuff, slipped my heels back on my feet and headed for the door.

  Unfortunately, my dragon lady of a boss was blocking my way.

  “Miss Collins, I see you're ready to leave.” She looked at her behemoth of a wristwatch. “Two minutes after five.” She raised a humongous unibrow at me and I stifled a giggle. It was hard to be pissed at her when she looked so ridiculous.

  Almost.

  “Yes. That's traditionally when the work day ends for us here, Ms. Hogan,” I replied, thinking with mild irritation that Hogan had me by the short hairs. She knew I needed the job, she couldn't lambast me for leaving when the work day was through, technically. But... she liked to make me feel diminished for leaving so close to the chiming of the clock.

  Hogan looked me over from head to toe, taking in my long black hair, so deep a black it had blue highlights in the right light. My eyes were a pale blue, I was shapely but not skinny, and on the tall side. I didn't consider myself a hot number but I held my own. Hogan, on the other hand looked like she was always trolling for a new bridge.

  I had discreetly pressed my elbow into the elevator button and it dinged just as she opened her mouth to mention something else equally unimportant, her jowls swinging as she popped her mouth open then closed it again.

  I felt my escape portal open at my back and walked backwards into its gaping mouth, never more glad to be out of mortar range of the enraged cow, aka my boss.

  She glowered at me, starting to waddle forward and I blurted out, “Have a great weekend!” The door swept closed in front of me.

  I did a mental forehead-wipe. Thank God I was out of there.

  As the elevator descended I prepared myself for the onslaught of cold weather, my car would need at least five minutes to heat up. The days were long here in the north and heating my car in the underground parking garage was just part of what we did in Alaska.

  The elevator doors hissed apart and the cold air swept into the tight space, momentarily stealing my breath. I huddled my full length coat around myself, silently wishing the car was already warm. I rushed out of the elevator's cocoon of heat, my heels making clicking sounds on the concrete as I made my way to my car. If you could call it that.

  As I approached I knew my car stood out, it was a Smart Car and Michelle liked to tease and say it was a toaster that I drove, not a real car. I smiled, she had me there.

  I fumbled with my keys, finally yanking my glove off with my teeth, groaning as the cold air assaulted my fingertips, making them instantly numb.

  “Hey, Rachel,”

  I dropped my keys on the ground, spinning, my hand to my heart.

  It was Erik, a guy from work. My shoulders slumped in relief. He scared the shit out of me.

  “Scare you?” he smiled.

  I smiled back tentatively. He had really been pursuing me and I wasn't that interested. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly but there was just something off about him.

  Erik approached me and I stiffened a little, but he bent over, jerking the keys off the ground and put a finger through the loop of my key fob and hung them off his finger in front of my nose.

  I tried to snatch them and he yanked them just out of reach.

  “Meet me for dinner,” he stated, his eyes steady on my face, disconcerting.

  “Ah... Michelle and I are going out tonight,” I said, trying to distract him.

  “Rain check?” he pressed, never stopping his eye contact. I was starting to get nervous.

  Damn.

  I resisted the supreme urge to look around, seeing if there was anyone else. But there wasn't. I could feel the absence of others. I sure wasn't short on woman’s intuition. Just another creepy service we offer, I thought, getting the heebie-jeebies.

  I closed my coat tighter around me and his eyes tracked the movement, a smile spreading on his face. “I'll let you go, I know you have plans.” But his face told another tale. I didn't think he'd forget my rebuff anytime soon.

  I held my hands out and I was happy to notice that they weren't shaking. He'd really put me in a creeped out mood and I wasn't happy about it.

  He dropped the keys into my cupped hands and smiled again, tipping an imaginary hat.

  I turned after his back was to me and stabbed the key into the lock, opening the door in one movement I slid behind the wheel, slapping the flat of my palm on the lock after it closed. I heard the simultaneous click in the silence of the car and let the breath out I didn't realize I'd been holding.

  Holy-hell.

  I turned on the car and stewed for the five minutes, all the while wishing I could have driven off.

  That encounter with Erik had put a bad taste in my mouth. Like diet pop, but somehow worse.

  I pulled out of the bowels of the building, the night as black as when the day started. I entered traffic and began the drive to my condo, almost in the heart of downtown.

  I couldn't wait to be home.

  I threw my lights on, and glancing right then left I was so startled that I almost let my foot off the brake into opposing traffic.

  Erik sat behind the wheel of his car. He'd been sitting there the entire time... waiting for me.

  I gunned it at the first hole in traffic that appeared. What a whacko!

  I'd have to tell Michelle he was a nut-job. She'd have him cracked in no time.

  ****

  I had my head thrown back and my lips parted, the last swipe of mascara almost perfect... there! I stood back and looked at my reflection: definitely not work attire. I was so glad I made the decision to not perk up the whole mess with just a new top. Michelle probably would have flogged me if I had anyway. She'd be dressed-to-kill (as usual). I needed to make an effort. Sometimes, I wondered why I bothered. Michelle would go, shine, get picked-up, bang some anonymous stud in the bathroom or wherever, and I would sip my drink wishing I could go home and curl up with a book. I sighed. That's okay. She was... my vicarious slutty friend. And I loved her.

  I grabbed my vanilla body spray and squirted a last dab. If I ended up dancing a lot, I'd be glad I wore it. It was frigid outside but once we were inside Spinners, with all the bodies packed in there, it'd be a different story.

  I heard the doorknob jiggle and caught sight of Michelle coming through the doorway looking delectable in her slut suit. She twirled for me so I could get the full effect.

  “That should be illegal!” I nearly screamed. She had a micro-mini on that was two part: it cupped her ass and was barely legal (skimming the indecent exposure laws by a millimeter). It was hot pink, setting off her platinum hair to perfection. She “helped” the color of said hair, but not by a lot. Michelle was a rare thing up here in the frozen north and I was betting that it was her coloring that got her so much attention, and the boobs... and the outfits. And, and....

  I smiled as she circled me like a shark, gauging my potential for Attracting the Opposite Sex.

  “I don't know... is this the shortest skirt you have?” Her brows closed the distance between her eyes.

  I self-consciously ran my hand over my short black skirt, it barely covered the lace of my thigh-highs... a gorgeous pair that I had splurged on from Italy.

  “Yeah, I can't go much shorter without the lace tops showing.”

  Michelle gave me a blank look. “Seriously, that's part of the allure.”

  “Ah... no. I say let them guess. It is underwear after all.”

  “I say show it!” Michelle said.

  “Mystery,” I replied.

  She threw her hand up. “Whatever, I give up. At least you did right by the top.”

  I had almost not worn it, it was a scorching crimson and showed off my raven hair, my eyes stranded like startled jewels in my pale face. It left my arms bare and was tucked inside the skirt.

  Michelle allowed her glance to linger a moment longer on my outfit, then shook her head as we walked out. I gave a qui
ck pet to Caesar the cat and waltzed out.

  CHAPTER 2

  Spinners was packed as usual and we jockeyed for position, awkwardly elbowing everyone without trying to maim people. It was always this way.

  I couldn't believe our luck! I spied a couple of bar stools and we raced over there to stake our claim before they were snatched up. We perched our butts on the stools, aimlessly looking around at the bodies packed together, dancing the night away. I noticed they had already opened all the windows, allowing the sub-twenty degree air in. It didn't matter, it felt like a balmy eighty where we sat.

  The bartender got our drinks. I sipped on a Blue Hawaiian and Michelle had Sex on the Beach (of course). She swung her leg back and forth and I was getting a spot-on flash of bright red panties... and so were a bunch of guys, judging from the expression of the gaggle of hunks sitting across from us.

  “So what happened with Erik?”

  “Yeah!” I yelled to be heard over the din. “He did this weird thing with my keys...” and I told her the whole thing. Michelle leaned forward to catch everything because the noise was swallowing my words.

  She leaned back against the bar, her elbows flung back and her wrists dangling off the edge, looking thoughtful. For Michelle that meant she was quiet for more than one minute.

  Finally she said, “Yeah, you want to stay away from him. I hear he went out with some girl and date-raped her.”

  Perfect, I thought. That'd kinda been the vibe I was getting off him. Wasn't sure that confirmation was the greatest thing in this case, after all, I worked with the weirdo.

  Wonderful.

  I was momentarily distracted when two of the cute guys across the way sidled over to us. The one on the right was almost as blonde as Michelle but that's where the similarity ended. He was a head taller than her with brown eyes and a face that had seen acne in its youth. I guess he was ruggedly handsome. He spent time in the gym; it was in the set of his shoulders, the way he moved... like he had purpose.

  Tonight his purpose was Michelle.

  His eyes never left the foot that swung, traveling up to the apex of what the skirt almost showed. He looked like a dog ready to mount a bitch. It did something for her because her foot stopped swinging and she gave him the come hither look.

  The night was Going According to Plan.

  “Want to dance, cutie-pie?” she asked, batting her eyelashes. He all but panted while I rolled my eyes in my head. I just couldn't do it. It's not that I'd never had sex. Casual just wasn't a main entree. I dreamed that there was someone for me in my future. Someone that I could share something with. I felt almost like... almost like I was waiting.

  Michelle argued there was plenty to be shared. She was into sharing.

  Generous Michelle.

  I watched her on the dance floor, plastered to Rugged, grinding for all she was worth, he was all over her and she was loving it.

  I took my eyes off them and looked at the guy in front of me. He was way cuter than Rugged. He had the enigmatic something that made a girl want to get a little closer.

  So I did.

  “Do you want to dance?” he asked.

  I nodded. He held out his hand, which was big I noticed. I tried not to think about how it would feel to have those hands roaming over my body but couldn't quite do it. He took me up against him and I molded against his torso. As those hands came to rest on the small of my back, the heat from them warmed me. He looked into my eyes and they held a promise of a fun night... if that's what I wanted. I didn't grind against him but I could feel that he was happy to be there. He smiled at me, knowing I was aware of his arousal.

  He clutched me tighter and lowered his face next to mine and whispered, “Your friend's gone.” Now he was kissing my neck.

  Unease crept its way along my body. Usually Michelle gave me some kind of signal or something. I looked around for her trying not to feel frantic.

  “Where did they go?” I semi-shouted at him.

  “Outside!” He inclined his head in the direction of the door.

  “You want to go find them?” he asked, his fingers already twining in mine.

  I looked down at our clasped hands and that feeling of unease bloomed in me again. I couldn't shake it. I understood on some level that I was just getting residual anxiety from the strange encounter with Erik and letting that cloud my thinking. I wasn't going to take it out on this guy.

  “Yeah, let's find them,” I said decisively.

  I should have listened to that voice inside my head.

  CHAPTER 3

  The wind was up and tore at the light outfit I had chosen for dancing inside. It simply wasn't enough. But the guy, (Matt, he'd told me as we hurried out) had said he thought they'd be in the car.

  “How much further?” I asked as I shivered in the light coat I'd slung on without a care before we left.

  I cared now, I was freezing my half-naked ass off.

  “Not much,” he wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we walked and that helped.

  Sure enough, another block of parked cars revealed a car that was running.

  I could see a flash of pink in the car, but barely.

  What was happening? It was Michelle but there were... others.

  Other men.

  My foreboding slammed back over me, washing away all tact. I went to wrench the car door open and Matt stopped me.

  “They're busy.”

  “Ah duh, Einstein, I can see that. But I don't know if she was planning on being this busy,” I said, seeing that there were at least two guys in there.

  Matt put his hands up, as if to say, hey, no problem, just sayin'.

  Irritating jerk.

  Sighing, I tore open the door and was entirely unprepared for what I saw before me:

  Michelle had Rugged behind her shoving his cock right up to her groin, the whole length of him digging in, sparing her nothing, his balls slapping her ass. The other guy, who I vaguely remembered sitting across the way from us, had his hand fisted in all that blonde hair and was pressing her face up and down on the shaft of his dick.

  When the door opened, Rugged's eyes flew open and his gaze met mine. His body was pumping and working behind Michelle his hand reached over and slapped her ass and she moaned, her head working up and down the shaft of the prick she had in her mouth.

  I didn't think she had planned on this and I yelled, “Michelle!”

  She tried to take her head off the cock she was on but he shoved her back down and she gagged. “I'm gonna spray my cum you dumb bitch, keep sucking.”

  She squirmed to try and get away and Rugged held her hips, pounding into her harder. I backed away with my hand covering my mouth.

  Michelle wasn't fooling around... she was getting raped.

  I swung around to get help and Matt wrapped his arms around me. One of his big hands that I'd admired so much earlier covered my mouth so I couldn't scream.

  Adrenaline slammed into me like a sheet of cold water.

  Dragging me into the front seat of the car he threw me across and I bounced once, almost landing against the opposite door. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what was going to happen as Rugged said hoarsely, “God... I'm gonna cum in her snatch right now, oh God!”

  The whole car rocked as he plunged his length into Michelle and the other guy torqued her head down on him and said, “Swallow it... that's it, swallow it. Ahhh... that's right,” he groaned, throwing his head back, his lips slightly parted.

  I started to fully panic then, scrambling across the seat, my skirt hiking around my hips as I struggled to reach the door.

  Matt landed on top of me and all the air in my lungs went out in a rush. I couldn't breathe and was in a state of sheer panic, Matt was not the guy I had taken him for.

  Neither were his friends.

  I could hear Michelle sobbing softly and the rustle of her clothes as she tried to adjust everything.

  Two heads and upper chests appeared over the top of the back seat as Matt's engorged aro
usal pressed along my inner thigh, trying to gain entrance, his pants long gone.

  “You gotta a live one there,” Guy X said.

  “Not as 'live' as the bitch we just did,” Rugged replied, laughing.

  The sweet air of the car's interior entered in a rush, filling my lungs to capacity and I screamed for all I was worth, tearing something loose in the process. Matt's hand clamped over my mouth and I bit him, trying to meet my teeth together. He snatched his hand away and bellowed. I knew what was coming as I was pinned under him, his other hand came down with depressing speed and accuracy, slamming into my cheekbone, my head rocketing back against the door.

  My head swam and his fingers dug at my panties while the other men watched....

  Just when I thought there wasn't a hope in the world, the driver's side door was torn open, the hinges shrieking, then releasing in the process. The door was flung behind the figure that filled the opening.

  I was seeing him upside down but the guys in the back seat summed it up, “What the fuck? Who the fuck are you?”

  He was my savior... whoever he was.

  Matt was backing off me in a hurry, leaving me to the stranger's mercy. With my head spinning all I saw was a strong jaw, black jeans, boots and a bad-ass leather zip-up. As he leaned down, the whiteness of his teeth gleamed in the interior dome light of the car, his nearly bald head had an inky wash of short black hair covering it, the shirt breaking open at the neck to reveal a tattoo that crawled up his neck.

  He wasn't big on conversation, his hand snaking out in a lethal punch that terminated on Matt's nose. There was a sickening crunch and he backed up, howling. His bleeding hand with my teethmarks held what I was sure was a broken nose as he fell right outside the car on his ass.

  The stranger looked down at me then and his eyes were a startling blue, not icy pale like mine. They were nearly white in a face that was pale, his lush mouth a deep scarlet slash. He looked me over carefully, but only a second or two as he was going to have to deal with Rugged and Guy X. Those two had gotten out of the car and I was too weak to even turn over and see things right side up. If he'd meant me harm, it would have happened.