by Jade White
“Rita, Asher said she told him it’s not all her blood. Do you know who Carl is?”
“I do know who that is. I’m not supposed to tell you though.” Rita knew Carl, and she was surprised Greta was sneaking around with him again. He was a vampire she liked to play cat and mouse with. They’d been off and on since the family had come into town and they had a very volatile relationship.
“There’s no time for secrets, Rita, we need to know if he did this.”
“He’s someone she was seeing, and I think that whoever did this to her really killed him. I think that’s why his blood is all over her. Mom can you see where she’s hurt?”
“It’s a deep cut to her abdomen. I’m working on it now, but most of the blood washed off. She’s still lost a lot. You all need to leave and let me work.”
They went upstairs and sat in the kitchen. Her father went up to his room to sulk for a while because his wife kicked him out when she was trying to save their daughter. Rita couldn’t blame her, it was probably really nerve wracking trying to be a doctor for your own child.
“We’re going to have to tell them Asher,” Rita said. She left out the part that she was responsible. She left out how guilty the whole thing made her feel.
“About the money?”
“Yes, they will know what to do if we just tell them. Greta almost died, and I can’t have that be on me.”
Just then a shrill cry came from the basement and everyone raced back down to her mother to see what was wrong.
“Christ, honey come look. She’s been bitten by a shifter. She’s going to freaking turn.” She’d turned Greta on her side and showed them a nasty looking bite mark on her back.
Rita looked at the mark. It was larger so it couldn’t have been a small animal. It was yellow and bloody with a slight glow around it. Rita had never seen someone bitten before the change. It was really hard to imagine her proud sister being taken down by a shifter. There must have been several of them. Greta would have been so pissed and they killed her lover. That was going to make her even angrier.
Her parents were going to have a difficult time with the whole thing. They’d never dreamed they’d have a shifter for a daughter. She didn’t know what the rules for hunting were, but she had a pretty good feeling the order would frown upon the whole thing.
Asher and Rita looked at each other, a feeling of dread passing between them. They hadn’t meant to kill Greta, and they hadn’t gone after the wrong girl. This was a warning to the two of them, a warning of what was going to happen to her family. If they had intended for her to die, they wouldn’t have bothered biting her. It was a weird play on their part, but an effective one. Something had to be done to protect her family.
Chapter Six
“So you’re telling me that you came over here and invited the shifter mafia to use my daughter as a bargaining chip to get money from you. Your business is bullshit; you aren’t even intimidating. I don’t know why you would think that’s a legitimate business for anyone.” Rita’s father was yelling at him as he paced back and forth in the kitchen.
“Dad, calm down,” Rita said.
“Calm down? Your sister is lying downstairs fighting for her life. Who knows what type of animal she is going to turn into and you want me to calm down?”
“Listen, they’re coming tomorrow and they expect me to give them eighty thousand dollars or they’re going to kill Rita. They will do it, too; they seriously don’t care. I know they went after Greta, and that sucks, but they’ll go after Rita, too. Your best hunter.” He grabbed her face and grunted when she elbowed him in the stomach. Maybe he shouldn’t try to speak for her.
“Greta is the best hunter, Dad, we both know that,” Rita said and stood to go put her hand on her dad’s shoulder. “How can we get out of this? Is there a way to get out of this?”
Her dad looked thoughtful for a minute and then looked over at her mother. “There’s one thing we have that they want more than the money and more than Rita’s head.”
“Think about what you’re saying before you give something away you can’t take back honey.” Rita’s mother spoke through clenched teeth. She’d been mostly quiet about the whole thing, but Rita could tell whatever her father was offering, it wasn’t something her mother wanted to give up.
“We don’t have eighty thousand dollars, we’re one man down, and outnumbered. I don’t think we have a choice.”
Rita’s mother said nothing and just stomped away with her arms crossed.
“It’s a map, it’s touched by magic. It will show them where all the vampires in town are at all times. If they ask where a vampire is by name, it will show him. I think they can ask it to switch to shifters if they wants, I’ll bluff that part, but it would be valuable to Grant either way. The only problem, it’s under the order and guarded by skeletons.” Her dad paced back and forth as he spoke.
“Did you say skeletons?” Rita asked that was a new one for her.
“Yes, they are old. I know we can have the map but only if we defeat the skeletons somehow. I don’t really know why the order set it up that way, but I can meet with Grant and promise him the map if you two can go beneath the order and bring it back. Now I’m going to bed because it’s been an incredibly long day and your mother is going to spend the night downstairs with Greta.”
“What are we going to do?” Rita looked at Asher who seemed to be deep in thought as he sat at her kitchen table with his chin on his fist.
“I think I know how we can beat the skeletons, but I have to do something first,” Asher said as he got up from the table and moved towards Rita.
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into him, his mouth found hers and she didn’t hesitate at all to open her mouth and let him in. He lifted her and sat her up on the counter as she wrapped her legs tightly around him. Part of her told herself to stop and pull away from the vampire, but she needed it. She kissed him as if her life depended on it and then pulled back hearing her mother coming up from the basement.
“My room,” she said between heavy breathing and raced from the kitchen and up the stairs.
They hadn’t even made it inside her room and he had her shirt off and his shirt off. He pulled her against him as she shut the door and he pushed her into it. His mouth was everywhere down her throat, chest and stomach. The need was almost unmanageable. She wanted him to take her so badly, but she didn’t act desperate, just moaned when he unclasped her bra and moved his mouth to her breasts. He spent a lot of attention on one nipple rolling it in his mouth and sucking it before moving to the other side. She was writhing against him without even realizing it, head thrown back and fingers gripping his shoulders.
He pulled back and stood looking into her eyes. Then he kissed her slow and deep causing her to lose herself in the moment. When he pulled away, the lust and boiling desire returned and he pulled off her jeans and panties. He kneeled in front of her and she could see the effect she was having on him bulging out in his black pants. Her mouth watered and he tortured her, kissing her thighs all the way up and down. He stood to take off his pants and free himself and she stared transfixed at its size before he was kissing her again.
He pushed her towards the bed and let her fall onto it before he bent down and kissed her stomach, moving down slowly. She tangled her hands in his hair and did something she didn’t ever do, she begged.
“Please, Asher. I need you.” It came out a lot less strong than she had wanted. She sounded weak, but as his mouth finally found the sweet spot she didn’t care about how she sounded.
He tested it at first, slowly darting his tongue inside her folds, but then he devoured her and she came almost instantly. She tried not to cry out too loudly, out of respect for her parents, as waves of pleasure took over and she arched from the bed.
He was inside of her before she knew it; one hand on her throat, the other propping himself up above her. Asher wasn’t moving, he was just looking at her, watching her enjoy the aftershocks. He wanted her to
beg again, she could see it in his eyes.
“I’m not going to beg you to take me, Asher.” She stared into his eyes wondering what his next move would be. He started to pull away and she panicked, locking her legs around him and pulling him deep within her. He moaned.
“You sure?” Tilting his head at her, she glared at him. She didn’t want to back down, but she was ready for another release, and she knew it would be heaven and hell all rolled into one delicious package. For a moment she had to swallow her pride.
“Please, take me. Please fuck me.”
That was all it took; he moved and then he didn’t stop. He’d go fast and slow down to a crawl, bringing her up and then calming her down. He was determined to make it last forever. She finally couldn’t stand it anymore and pushed him hard, flipping over on top of him and settling herself, pulling him deep. She moved fast holding his arms at his sides and he watched her. She knew when he was getting close to the edge, his fangs came out. He made a noise between a growl and a groan and she did the unthinkable.
She leaned down to his ear and whispered. “Bite me.”
He flipped them over quickly staying inside and sunk his teeth into her neck. She felt him go rigid as he drank and came all at once and his moans sent her right over the edge. She cried out louder than she should have because the mixture of pleasure and pain was so intense. Waves shot through her body, her neck, her legs. It was almost too much to bear and when he’d had enough he kissed her again, the metallic taste of her blood on his lips, and then he took her all over again until she was so tired she fell asleep beneath him, body coursing with pleasure completely satisfied.
***
Asher lay beside Rita listening to her breathe in awe of what had just happened. The heat between them was raw and she’d let him drink from her. Her hunter blood surged powerfully through his veins. He knew how to defeat the skeletons, but he was going to have to bargain with someone he hadn’t seen in a while and she was going to be really pissed to see him. Asher didn’t know when Rita’s dad was going to go and see Grant; they were running out of time.
The morning light was starting to peek through the window and he realized he’d been listening to her breathing for a long time. They would have to get up soon and he really didn’t want to let her go and climb out of her bed.
“Rita get up,” Asher squeezed her shoulder she jerked and smacked him in the side of the face. “That wasn’t necessary.”
“Oh God, I slept with you. Oh God.” She sat up and looked around the room like someone would pop out.
“You are seriously a confusing woman, Rita. You liked it, so stop pretending that you didn’t want to do it.”
“I had a moment of weakness, clearly.” She got up from the bed and walked back and forth in the room.
Asher realized he’d have to talk to her later about what happened between them because this wasn’t the time.
“So I know a witch I think can help us get past the skeletons, but she hates me, so it might be a little hard to get her to agree with helping.”
“You slept with her, didn’t you?” Rita asked.
Asher simply smiled and led the way out of the room to go downstairs and check with her parents. He hoped Greta wouldn’t turn, that would be unfortunate and he wondered when he started caring about people’s lives and their feelings. Rita’s dad was standing next to the sink drinking coffee and he was dressed in a suit.
“I’ll go to Grant today and tell him what we have to offer. You two have to get it back before this afternoon because if you don’t, he’ll probably kill me too.”
Asher didn’t want to be the reason Rita’s whole family died. He really hoped the witch would help them.
“We have some traveling to do, so we better get going, Rita.” Asher walked out the door and waited for her to follow. He held his hand out for the keys but she ignored him and climbed into the driver’s seat. Reluctantly, he got into the other side even though he hated being a passenger.
“Alright, where am I going, Asher?”
“Drive until you hit the end of the road where it turns to dirt and then park.”
Rita looked at him strangely. He knew it was because she didn’t think anyone lived that way, but the witch did. She liked to be completely isolated from other people so she lived in the woods, deep. They’d have to walk there. She pulled out and followed his directions.
***
Rita followed Asher through the woods until they came upon a small cabin. It was like something out of a fairy tale or a horror movie. Why did this woman live so deep in the woods? Asher took a deep breath when they made it to the front door and then reached out to knock.
"Coming, I'm coming." It was a sweet voice, not one dripping with venom. She'd never met a witch, but that was just how she'd pictured them with gravely voices and ugly features. The second assumption was blown out of the water when a gorgeous brunette opened the door for them.
"Asher." This was a word spoken a little harsher. She immediately started to throw whatever she could reach at him. A vase hit him in the arm, and he ducked as she threw a full container of umbrellas at him.
"Esmerelda, please hear me out."
"Asher, you snake. You said you loved me; you said you'd be right back."
"I was going to come right back but something happened and I couldn't."
"That was two years ago and now you show up with another woman in tow, for what?"
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't need your help, Esme."
"Don't call me that." She pointed a long black fingernail in his face. "You're not allowed to call me that."
"I'm really sorry. I just don't have anyone else to turn to, and it's not my life on the line. It's hers and her family's. I'm not here for me."
"That so?" Esmerelda turned and looked at Rita; she had wild yellow eyes that made her cat like. Rita was uncomfortable as she just stared at her. Finally, she nodded, having made up her mind.
"Come in."
They moved inside and Rita saw lots of strange things. A doll hanging from the fire place by its neck, a picture of a cheetah with the breasts of a woman, and several bones of various sizes. They followed her into the living room and took a seat on her red couch. It was covered with a knitted blanket of a black cat. There was an actual black cat that sat on the back of it making a strange hissing and growling noise. Rita didn't dare try to pet it.
"Tell me what you need."
"We need a potion to make it through, around, skeletons. They are guarding something we need to keep the shifters from killing Rita's family and we need to get past them."
Esmerelda laughed loudly and threw her head back. It lasted a long time and Rita looked over at Asher to see if he understood why she was laughing. She stopped and looked at them. "Oh, you're serious. Let me think for a minute. Skeletons are tricky, do we know if they're enchanted?"
"I think so, I mean if they can guard something, wouldn't they have to be enchanted?"
"No, they could be possessed, or spelled, not just enchanted."
"Of course," Asher said and rolled his eyes at Rita who shook her head. The last thing they needed to do was anger the one person who could help her.
“If they’re possessed then they contain the devil’s magic and that’s a little harder to crack. Not impossible, but harder. If they're spelled, it would be beneficial to know the spell the witch used to reverse it. If they're enchanted, then it would be a whole lot easier. There are several other things they could be, too; touched by pixies, voodooed, someone’s wish on a star, a genie’s influence, the possibilities are endless.”
“You don’t have something that works against all of those things at once?” Asher said.
Esmerelda looked thoughtful; she walked over to a bookshelf and held her hand spread out in front of them. Rita waited for one to jump back out at her, but nothing happened and she didn’t take a book either.
"So I think I can give you something that will temporarily freeze anything if you get it on
them. It won't last, though, so you'll have to move fast, and you're going to have to wait out here while I fix it up; it's going to take a little while."
She disappeared into the back and Rita sat and waited with him as he paced in front of the couch. It seemed for a minute like she was just messing with them, and it was hard to know if they really could trust her. Rita decided she would wait until they were outside to express her concerns.
***
Asher picked up a bone and pretended to sword fight an invisible enemy with it. Rita just rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch. He had very fond memories of being wrapped tightly in Esmerelda's arms floating above the bed trying very acrobatic moves. Witches were the best lays but they weren't relationship material. Scorning one was certainly not the smartest plan, but he'd simply loved her and left her. She was beautiful and sexy, but she wasn't Rita. Rita excited him in a much different way.
Esmerelda finally returned from the back with a bag of something. “There’s powder in here you have to get directly on the skeletons. No matter what type of magic moves them it will only freeze them for two minutes so you have to do whatever you need to do quickly.”
“Thank you, Esme, thank you so much for being cool.” Asher went to hug her but she held up her hand.
“Let’s be clear hot shot, I did this for her and her family, not for you.”
“Thank you,” Rita said as she pulled him away from the door. “I won’t forget the kindness you’ve shown today.”
The next thing they had to go was figure out how to get a known vampire underneath the headquarters of the order sworn to keep them out and to kill them. The main purpose of the order and the vampire hunters in the beginning was to eradicate all vampires. Once they came under new ruling, the leader decided killing all of them might not be necessary and that’s when the idea to tag them came into play. Once they could make it where vampires couldn’t feed on humans they didn’t care if they lived. Asher always wondered if they had a bigger purpose for keeping them around, like they’d need an army someday, but he figured they weren’t smart enough to think ahead.