“I did,” Samuel said. “More than I can tell you.”
“Your heart is racing. Have I upset you?” she asked.
Samuel groaned. “You have not upset me. I am upset with myself for what I want to do to you.”
“And what is that?” she asked. Azerial knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“I want to do all kinds of things that are not very Goddess-like,” he said, taking her hips in his hands.
Azerial stared at him. His bald head was begging for her to run her hands over it. He had the most lovely brown eyes and broad shoulders. She could see the muscle he was getting under the thin fabric of his t-shirt. She let her eyes travel down his torso and stopped at the bulge in his pants. Azerial knew this meant he was ready for sex; something she could not provide. But she also knew he could handle it himself if need be.
“Is one of those things kissing?” she asked, staring back up at his lips.
“Yes,” he said on a hoarse whisper.
“Please do then,” she told him.
“This is a bad idea,” he whispered as he lowered his head. Azerial knew it was a bad idea, but she wanted it. Just once. Samuel lowered his head more and gently brushed his lips across hers.
Warm heat zinged across her lips and down her spine at the first contact. He moved his mouth gently over hers and caressed her lips with his own. He pulled away from her just enough to whisper, “Open for me.” When she opened her mouth to ask him to explain what that meant, he darted his tongue into her mouth. He moved his hands from her hips to around her back and behind her neck. He was holding her securely to his body.
Azerial couldn’t keep up with the sensations that were taking over her body. He tasted so good and she found herself sucking at his tongue. This only made him kiss her harder as he held her tightly against his body. She could feel his erection on her lower belly and she found that she enjoyed it. It made her insides warm and a wetness began to pool between her legs.
It was so hard; like he was carrying a steel pipe in his pants. She didn’t make a conscious decision to touch him, but her hand found her way between them anyway. She cupped him outside of his jeans and he growled into her mouth. When she gave him an experimental squeeze, she felt it jump in her hand.
“Ah, Baby, you’re killing me,” he groaned.
Azerial stepped back from him immediately. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know…”
“Shh,” he said. “Not literally. I mean that you test my control to the point that I can’t help myself. I should never have touched you. I am sorry. I should have kept my hands to myself.”
“I wanted to be touched,” Azerial said softly.
“I know but I am not worthy of you,” he said. “I should be ashamed. I am ashamed. I’m so sorry,” he said as he quickly ran from the room.
Azerial was left feeling bereft and wanting. She didn’t really understand what she wanted, but she knew that the only way to get it was Samuel.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jacque sat in his lab with his ear buds jammed into his ears. The latest Avenged Sevenfold album blasted away at his eardrums as he took samples of the drug in the syringe. He placed a small amount onto a slide and then another small amount into a dropper. He popped the slide under his microscope and then dropped a couple of drops into the mass spectrometer. He touched a couple of commands on the screen and then went back to the microscope while the machine did its job.
He didn’t hear when Frankie entered the room, but he knew she was there just the same. He was staring down into the lens of the microscope when she sat a bottle of blood on his desk and put her hands on his shoulders. “How’s it going?” she asked.
He pulled one of the buds out of his ear. “Nothing yet. Just got a sample into mass-spec and it is gonna be a while before I can decide what these little cells actually are. Here, have a look.” He moved back so that Frankie could look into the scope.
She saw bunches of little circles in about six different colors floating in some kind of fluid. To her, it looked like one of those games she used to play on Facebook. “What am I looking at?” she asked.
“I have an idea, but not sure yet. I can tell you that there are several ingredients. I have my suspicions, but I am gonna wait for more results before jumping to any conclusions.”
Frankie turned her head to look at him. He was just as gorgeous as he was the first time they met. She loved the ring in his eyebrow and the stud in his sharp nose. She even liked the spiked dog collar. He had gorgeous chocolate eyes that were framed by thick black lashes. She reached around his neck and unfastened the collar.
“How long do we have before you get some results?” she asked as she turned his chair and straddled his legs.
“About half an hour,” he huffed out on a short breath. Just her proximity was waking up his entire body.
She ran her hand over his spiked hair and let them rest on his neck. “Hmm, what should we do for the next thirty minutes?”
“I can think of a few things,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.
“I haven’t fed today,” she whispered by his ear. Jacque turned his head to the side, offering her his neck. Frankie felt her fangs drop in her mouth and she struck hard and without warning. She sank her fangs into his neck and felt him stiffen when she did it.
“Oh fuck me,” he growled. His rich blood flooded into her mouth and she sucked hard. Frankie had never struck so hard before, but given the way he was pushing his hips up into her, he liked it. She knew he liked it rough and she was one to please her man. He grabbed her ass and forced her to move the way he wanted her to.
Frankie didn’t mind at all. He was rubbing his cock right along her cleft and sending wonderful sensations throughout her body. She felt the tension building in her core and quickly licked the wounds in his neck to seal them. She raised her head to look him in the eyes.
“Fuck me,” he groaned.
Frankie smiled. “That was the idea,” she told him. He growled deep in his chest and ripped her shirt open down the middle. “Yes,” she moaned as he took an exposed nipple into his mouth. He scraped his teeth over it, but did not bite. “Tease,” she complained.
He licked and kissed his way around her breasts until she was writhing with need. Then and only then did he give her what she wanted. He moved his mouth just to the side of her breast and bit. His fangs slid easily into her soft flesh. He drank slowly and allowed his tongue to caress her skin.
He could tell that she was holding on by a thread, which was slightly more than he had control of. He removed his teeth from her skin and stood, taking her with him. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he took her to the nearest wall. “These have to go,” he said, unfastening her pants. He set her on her feet only long enough to yank her pants down her legs, along with her panties. He stood and opened his fly and his cock jumped out. Then he picked her back up and she returned her legs around his waist. “I love you,” he said as he entered her in one thrust.
Frankie wanted to tell him how much she loved him as well, but he had rendered her speechless for the moment. All she could concentrate on was the feeling of him sliding in and out of her body. More, she needed more. She was standing on the edge, but she needed him to let loose if she was going to jump over the edge. She knew exactly how to make him go wild.
She grabbed two handfuls of his hair and yanked his head back. He moaned and still kept the same pace with his hips. “I need you,” she said.
“You have me,” he said.
“Now,” she demanded. She dropped her head and sank her teeth into his shoulder. Jacque had always been one for biting and she knew it and exploited it. As she expected, he held her tighter and let his control snap. He pounded into her body, ramming her against the wall over and over again.
He loved that Frankie knew just how to get to him. He loved the way she thought, the way she walked, talked…. hell he loved everythin
g about her. He especially loved the way her body fit his perfectly, and how she would tighten around him like a fist when she was coming. Like now. He watched her face as she threw her head back and gave in to the pleasure he was giving her. He barely held his control while she rode out the waves and then he let go. He drove into her again and again until he could hold it no longer. He roared as he exploded inside her.
They stood there for a minute, legs shaking, before Jacque eased her back onto her feet. “That was incredible,” he told her.
“I love you too,” she said.
Jacque smiled.
“You said it earlier and I didn’t get a chance to say it back.”
“Oh,” he said. “I already knew.”
Frankie had her mouth open to come back with some snide remark, but it was then that the mass spectrometer beeped. Jacque rushed over to it and printed out its report. “Oh fuck,” he grumbled.
“What is it?” she asked.
“This is bad,” Jacque said. He told her in her mind what he had found and what it meant.
“We have to tell the others,” she said.
“Yeah, we do. Brea is gonna need you.” Jacque helped Frankie get her clothes back in order before they went to spread the word.
CHAPTER NINE
Brea was sitting on Jade’s bed when Jacque found her. She had been going over Jade’s lessons with her. “Ma Cherie,” Jacque said quietly. “We need you to come with us.”
“What’s going on?” Jade demanded.
“Nothing,” Jacque told her. “We just need all the adults to get together.”
“Yeah right,” Jade said. “You know I can just go in and get the information I want,” she told him.
“But you won’t because we are not allowed to muck around in people’s heads,” Brea reminded her. “Finish your homework. I’ll be back to check it.”
They left Jade’s room and met in the family room where the rest of the family was waiting. Even Azerial had made an appearance. She wanted to know what was in that drug just as badly as everyone else did. It affected the humans and vampires that she was charged with protecting.
“I got some results back on that drug,” Jacque said. “Mass-spec says it is comprised of D-lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate, sulfuric acid, methanol, propylene glycol, and ethylene glycol, and glycerol.”
“Right,” Gage said. “And what the fuck is that? In English this time?”
Jacque drew in a deep breath. “It is basically LSD, battery acid, and antifreeze.”
“Isn’t that the same drug Pastor Crazy Pants was using?” Jessica asked.
Jacque nodded. “Basically. It has been changed a little, but not much. It’s more stable than before.”
“So this is what is getting vamps high?” Angel asked.
“Yes,” Jacque answered.
“Not again,” Brea whispered.
“Love?” Angel said as he sat next to his wife.
“They killed Keelie with it and now it’s out there again!” Brea couldn’t stop the memory from flowing into her mind, and by mental connection, into Angel’s.
It had been a few years earlier when Keelie was killed. Brea had just mated Angel and Jessica and Sebastian were a new couple. A fanatic priest had decided that vampires were filled with evil and he was doing his best to send them into the light. By that, he was draining their blood and tying them out in the sun to die. He was using a form of this drug to knock out the vampires he kidnapped.
He and his congregation attacked the estate. Keelie was standing guard in her wolf form when one of them shot her with a drug filled dart. It hadn’t taken long for the poison to overtake her body.
Brea could still hear Ricco, Keelie’s husband, screaming as he held her lifeless body.
Of course, Keelie’s pack made sure that Ricco got revenge for his wife. The lackey with the gun suffered an impossibly horrible death at his hands. And then Ricco, then the head of Angel’s human security, took a bullet for his vampire employer. They had lost two members of their family that day. It was that heavy loss that scared Frankie away. It took her four years to come home and back to Jacque where she belonged, and he nearly lost her again before turning her into a vampire.
“I’m so sorry,” Frankie said to her, sitting beside her and holding her close. Brea realized that she was sobbing and tried to get it under control. Angel was sitting on her other side and he pulled her into his lap.
“I can’t!” she cried. “I can’t do it again!” She crushed her face into his hard chest.
“Shhh, Mon Amore,” he cooed into her hair. “It will not come to that.”
Brea jerked her head up. “How can you say that? You don’t know! There is a demon distributing it! And he wants Samuel!” She jumped out of his lap and turned to face him. “How can you sit there and tell me that it won’t come to that? How can you say that we won’t lose anyone else? How many do we have to lose?”
“Because we won’t let it,” Gage offered.
“Go to hell,” she snapped at him. “It took my best friend. We have lost Keelie and Ricco, Antonio and Macy! How many will it cost to pay whatever blood debt we have? And now? What the hell! Who will be next? Will it be Jessica? Or me? We are human! What about Jade! They could use it on my child and it would kill her!” She knew she was bordering on hysteria, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“I swear to you I will let no harm befall your children,” Azerial told her.
“I hope you can protect them. If not, we’re fucked.” Brea stomped out of the room before she shouted anymore and said something she couldn’t take back.
From the hallway where no one could see her, Jade wiped a tear from her face. Stupid tears. She hated that her mother was hurting. She hated that her family was so afraid. She had to talk to that Goddess; that was for sure. There had to be something they were missing. She snuck back to her room on silent feet before she was discovered by her family.
CHAPTER TEN
Five years. That was all it took for Ricky Stanton to move up the ranks from a rookie cop to detective and finally to the Human-Vampire liaison for the LAPD. Of course, he knew he wouldn’t have gotten the position if not for a glowing recommendation from his mentor and predecessor, Samuel Corbin.
The department felt a keen loss for their head detective, but since he was no longer human, he couldn’t stay with the human police force. Ricky thought that was a load of crap personally, but the decision was out of his hands.
Besides, now Sam was living it up as part of the security team for the famous Angel Knight. Talk about your dream job. But that was the reason he was here, wasn’t it? Ricky shook his head as he trudged up the steps to the front door of the Knight Estate. He was granted access at the front gate immediately, and he had been treated with the same kind of respect Samuel had when this had been his job.
But now it was Ricky’s job and he had to come to talk to Angel about Samuel. He remembered the first case he and Sam had worked together. A vampire was killing people and making it look like a werewolf was to blame. Sam was quick to notice that something wasn’t right and he was quick to take Ricky under his wing. Ricky owed Samuel his career, which made what he was about to do so much harder.
He knocked on the huge door and waited patiently for someone to open it. He knew that they already knew he was there. After only a short wait, the massive door opened and Ricky saw a woman he recognized on the other side.
“Hey Leigh,” he said with a smile.
“Detective,” she said with a smile and a nod. “Come in.” She opened the door wide and stepped aside to give him enough room to enter.
Ricky stepped into the foyer and just took in the sight of the huge house. Off to one side was the family room. It didn’t look as he expected, though. For whatever reason, he expected it to look like some rich person’s house, all neat and clean and everything in its place. Instead, he saw a well-used room with toys scattered from one end to the other.
There was a wide stai
rcase that led to the upstairs hallway and another hallway that he assumed led to the rest of the house.
“How is everyone?” he asked as he followed Leigh through the house.
“Good, I suppose. Toni is growing every day and so is Jade. I think Jade has started to slow down a little though. Jessica is getting some work done in her office, some of the guys are practicing, and Sebastian is doing what he does; mixing their music. Angel is in his study.”
“How’s Sam doing?”
“Sam is adjusting,” Leigh said as she opened the door to Angel’s office. “He still has some getting used to this life to do, but I know he will be just fine.”
“Thank you,” Ricky said as she motioned for him to go in. Angel was sitting at his desk as if he had known all along that Ricky was coming. He looked a bit intimidating to Ricky. Hell, the man just oozed power out of his pores.
“Hello Detective,” Angel said with a smile.
“Hi Angel,” he said. “How have you been?”
“Good, thanks. We have a few things going on here but nothing we can’t handle. How are you liking the new job?”
“Samuel was better at it,” Ricky openly admitted.
“I have no doubt that once you get used to it, you will do just as well.” Angel sat forward in his chair. “But you didn’t come here to make small talk, did you?”
Ricky shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not,” he said. “I actually came to talk to you about Samuel. I have had numerous complaints that he is crossing the line between vampire law and human law. In fact, I have had to let two perps go this week because they were unlawfully brought in.”
“Oh dear,” Angel said. “I am aware that he has been “working” with the lines blurred a bit, and I have given him some leeway to work with because I know how hard it is for him to change. He is an officer of the law and will be until the day he dies. A criminal is a criminal to him, regardless of race.”
“I know, but I was hoping you could remind him of the rules? They were made for a reason and he is just disregarding them.”
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