The Nightlife: London (Urban Fantasy Romance) (The Nightlife Series)

by Luedke, Travis

  “Fuck.” Aaron shook his head.

  Michelle watched him, wisely keeping her mouth shut. Her eyes spoke of warning, but there was no way around the truth.

  “What?” Ivan watched him too. Talk about sitting in the hot seat. “Is she strong enough to change yet?”

  “I don't know. She looked pretty good when we left. She was eating up a storm.”

  Ivan nodded and smiled. “That’ll do it. She just needs enough strength to change … and change back.”

  Though intelligent, and a generally decent guy, Ivan’s lack of advance planning struck Aaron as ridiculous. If Katya had to eat to gain strength to change to wolf, then what the hell was she going to eat to gather the strength to change back? Who was she going to eat?

  Ivan looked at him sincerely with a warm smile. “Thank you for bringing her home. Once she changes into her wolf, she’ll be fine. You honored your promise.” He clasped Aaron’s hand and arm in a brotherly shake.

  “Well, you see, I did honor my promise, and I did help her heal … She’s mostly healed already.”

  “How?”

  “Um, I did it.”

  Ivan looked at him, a growl on his lips and a flare of malice in his eyes. “What did you do?”

  * * * *

  After hearing Aaron’s tale in all its sordid detail, Ivan was thoroughly disgusted with him and Michelle both. “I told you to take care of her! That doesn’t include rape!”

  Michelle put her hand on Ivan’s shoulder. “He was following Urvashi’s council. He did the best he could and he saved her life. We both saved her life. It was not rape.”

  Ivan’s fists were balled up, ready to swing. Michelle leaned forward into his face, leaving herself wide open to him. “Go ahead, hit me. If it will make you feel better.”

  Ivan punched the back headrest and knocked the front passenger seat all the way forward. The cab driver swerved and started cursing up a storm.

  Ivan growled, “Let me off here.” He jumped out of the still-moving vehicle a block away from the apartment with his finger jabbed at Aaron in a parting warning. “You better … Oh fuck it!” He took off walking fast, straight for the apartment. Aaron had never seen him so mad he couldn’t articulate what he wanted to say.

  Aaron reassured the cab driver. “If he broke it we’ll pay for it. Don’t worry.”

  “Don’t worry? Fucking wanker!”

  Michelle threw two fifties into his lap. “That’s your tip. Get us to the Knightsbridge hotel in the next twenty minutes, and you’ll earn another hundred, on top of your cab fare.”

  Aaron had almost forgotten to worry about the sunrise, but Michelle was all too aware of its proximity. The cab driver quit grumbling and turned off towards their hotel.

  “Do you think they’ll forgive me?” Aaron didn’t even want to look Michelle in the eyes, he felt like a complete dirtbag.

  “Is not important. You did what you had to.” She comforted him with her hand on his lap, curling her fingers in his.

  Although she was right, Aaron suspected he may have gone too far.

  * * * *

  Chapter 25

  A loud banging on the hotel suite door rattled Aaron awake just before sunset. Definitely too early to get up. SLAM, SLAM, SLAM. “Open the door you bloody wanker or I swear I’ll cut your prick off when I find you!”

  He considered answering, might not be wise.

  “Fuck it.” Better to face Katya now rather than let her sneak up on him later.

  The moment he unlocked the deadbolt, Katya burst in the door, shoving him back. “You, and your devil’s teeth!” She pointed a pistol in his face. “I should have killed you the first day.”

  “Look, I’m too tired for this shit. I didn’t know you could heal if you changed to a wolf. I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

  “I couldn’t change you idiot! I was too weak!”

  “Great, so I saved your ass, and now you’re here to shoot me. That makes sense.”

  “You hooked me, you son of a bitch. I’ve been going mad all day long thinking of one thing! You! I told you not to bite me! I begged you not to bite me! And you did it on purpose, I know you did!” Tears streamed down her face, and her gun hand wavered so bad he thought she might shoot him accidentally.

  He snatched the gun away and tossed it across the room. “Stop it!”

  A solid left hook nailed him in the jaw, snapping his head sideways. Girl could hit. She came at him in a flurry, right, left, right, left. He dodged and slapped her hands away, but she was strong – and fast. The knee to the groin dropped him.

  Groaning with that puky gut-groin pain, he tackled her legs and brought her down. The girl was a brawler, and she fought hard. But he was pissed now, and not in the mood to get hit anymore.

  He pinned her on her back, his hips between her legs, and her hands held above her head. “Stop fighting me, Katya! I am not your enemy. I saved your life.”

  Sobbing and bawling, still struggling to break free, she screamed in his face. “I don’t want to be your bloodslave! I don’t want to be your pet chew-toy! I don’t want to suck your dick and run your errands and die alone, a drained carcass with a fucking smile on my face. You did this to me on purpose. You didn’t have to claim my life to save me!”

  All he could do was hold her. He couldn’t even deny her accusations. Deep down, he knew he had claimed her. It had been unavoidable. He had made love to her almost non-stop for seventy two hours, biting her over and over.

  How could he not claim her as bloodslave?

  It was an ingrained instinct, natural as his beating heart. Michelle had taught him to never, ever bite women more than two minutes, and never more than twice. Michelle knew how easily a person could be claimed, hooked on her bite. But Aaron abandoned all caution trying to save Katya’s life. He couldn’t even count how many times he bit her, or for how long. She was his now, for life, for better or worse.

  “I didn’t know any other way, Katya. I did what I had to.” He let go of her hands and hugged her tight, squeezing her warm, wonderful body that had once been so frail and weak, but now held a mass of power and vitality. She reeked as if she had rolled in the hay with a whole pack of wet dogs. And he couldn’t help but notice the wound on her chest was nothing but fresh skin. No scar and no scab.

  She had already done it, changed to wolf and back again. She didn’t need his help anymore, not for healing, but she did need something else.

  His bite.

  “I don’t want you near me with your fucking teeth, but it’s all I can think about!” She sobbed and beat at his shoulders as he held her. He wished he could take it all back and undo the damage. But it couldn’t be undone. Bloodslaves were life-long addicts, if they lived for long.

  There was only one thing to do. He bit her. In seconds, her sobs and flailing arms became sighs and intimate caresses. His teeth worked their magic, dumping the world’s most powerful drug into her bloodstream, alleviating her withdrawals, and gifting her an intensely sexual euphoria.

  They hugged for a time, and he eventually let go his bite. Though she may not realize it, he didn’t actually feed from her. He only sunk his teeth in to let his venom saturate into her body.

  “Is this the rest of my life? Is your face the one I will wake up to every day of my life?” Her tears started again. He hated seeing her cry. Such a strong woman shouldn’t cry. It was so wrong.

  “You brought breakfast in bed? How nice.” Michelle leaned over the corner of the hotel bed, grinning broadly with all her teeth.

  “Oh god no. I can’t do this, I just can’t.” Katya pushed him to let her up.

  Aaron stood and pulled Katya off the floor. She seemed slightly more reasonable now that her needs were taken care of.

  Michelle licked her lips. “One little bite, an aperitif?”

  “No, I am not your bloody aperitif. I’m not the main course. I’m not anything.”

  Michelle sat up on the bed, butt-ass naked, absolute zero modesty. Aaron
was already getting hard just looking at her. Plans for a threesome swirled through his imagination, erasing all of the potential pitfalls of such a relationship.

  {{Open the door. I am here.}} Urvashi’s abrupt intrusion into his mind startled him.

  “Shit.” He didn’t even know she had left Russia, let alone arrived in London.

  Without scanning to see who might be with her, he opened the door wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. There stood Urvashi, with Ivan, both of them grinning and staring at Michelle over his shoulder. His naked lover grinned right back at them and didn’t bother to cover herself.

  Aaron was beginning to suspect Michelle had set her sights on Ivan with plans to tame a wolf of her own. She had surely caught his eye. Ivan couldn’t stop staring at her, with the hungry look of a carnivore.

  That would surely be a mistake to avoid, taking two wolves into their household.

  Urvashi shook her head. “Please put some clothes on. We need Ivan to pay attention.”

  Ivan’s eyes never left Michelle, but he snickered. “She does not seem to mind, and I have no complaints.”

  Katya had regained some of her composure. She waved her hand in front of Ivan’s face. “I’m right here. Can you see anything beyond the blonde piece of ass? Come on, we need Ivan’s big head, not the little one.”

  “Both my heads are big.” He laughed in Katya’s face. It was good to see the cheerful Ivan, rather than the Russian Bear Ivan ready to maim and kill.

  Aaron decided some clothes were in order. He grabbed a t-shirt for himself and one for Michelle. She took full advantage of her audience to slowly, sensually slide that t-shirt down over her outstretched hands and jiggling breasts. It reached all way down to the very edge of her ass. Just short enough to flash everyone with shaved pussy.

  Ivan pulled his eyes away from Michelle long enough to give Aaron a measure of scrutiny. The Russian glanced at Katya, and then back at Aaron, doing some sort of mental calculation. “I’m not too sure yet if I should thank you, but Katya is alive, and you did your best to help her.”

  Aaron nodded to Ivan and watched something unspoken pass between the wolves. Katya looked down and away, as though ashamed, or avoiding Ivan’s gaze.

  “Listen, we don’t have time for drama.” Urvashi took a second to collect everyone in the room with her no-bullshit severity. “Two members of Katya’s pack died in an explosion. Dmitri and his security forces knew we were coming. We were betrayed.”

  Urvashi’s eyes slid towards Katya who looked like she was about to start crying again. Aaron hated seeing her cry. Aaron shook his head. “It wasn’t her fault. If you need someone to blame, look to Dmitri and his bloodslave.”

  Urvashi glared at Aaron for his defense of Katya. “There is much you do not know, and little time to share it with you. We must leave soon, no later than tomorrow. Dmitri will die. We will take him down.” She looked at Ivan and Katya in turn. “This is not about your vendetta, though I understand how you feel. I will explain the full details in Moscow, where I can show you what he’s been doing. His actions cannot go unchecked. I tried diplomacy. I tried to buy him off. Dmitri will not be deterred, and for that, we must kill him.”

  “What the hell is he doing?” Aaron was so tired of being led around with all this secretive half information.

  “He’s synthesizing vampire’s venom and planning to mass produce it.”

  “Oh my god.” Katya’s hand went to her mouth. She looked horrified.

  Aaron puzzled it over for a moment. “So, he’s a drug dealer designing a new drug?”

  “Yes. But this is vampire’s venom. Imagine entire nations of bloodslaves, in thrall to Dmitri. Ask Katya how she feels about your venom. Ask her what it was like to go without your bite today while you slept.”

  Katya’s eyes burned with hatred for Urvashi. Katya was not one to have her issues aired in public. As she opened her mouth to protest, Michelle interrupted. “This cannot be allowed. We must kill Dmitri, and any of his laboratory workers, his secretaries and assistants, anyone who might have learned the formula or the methods of creating this drug. This is a crime against humanity.”

  They all just stared at her. Michelle. Of all people, no one expected her to be so vehemently opposed, so passionate about this issue. She stared back at them boldly, wearing nothing but a black t-shirt, naked from the waist down. “I know what happens to bloodslaves, I have seen it too many times.” Her eyes went to Aaron and then Katya. “Dmitri must be stopped at all costs.”

  Katya nodded in agreement with Michelle. For the first time ever these two women saw eye to eye on an issue. Somebody get a camera and capture this moment.

  Ivan slumped down in a recliner and leaned his head to the side to ogle Michelle’s naked ass. The television came on suddenly, startling everyone in the room with a loud, obnoxious commercial for used cars. Urvashi looked at the device as if it was possessed by a demon and she would smash it back into the seventh level of hell.

  Aaron pointed to Ivan’s leg. “You’re sitting on the TV remote.” Ivan found the remote beside him and studied the hundred or so buttons.

  Aaron looked up and froze in position at the face of a blonde woman on the six-o-clock news. “That’s her! That’s the woman who was with Jamison when he bought the pistol! I recognize her.” Aaron snatched the remote away from Ivan to keep him from shutting it off.

  The television screen split in half to show a dark-haired female reporter holding a microphone on the left side, and a recent photograph of the blonde woman on the right. “Today a woman was found dead in her home in Esher. She reportedly committed suicide with a lethal overdose of pain medication. From her handwritten note, police officials are fairly certain Laura Robbins took her own life.”

  The reporter shuffled papers on her desk and continued. “Ms. Robbins claimed she could no longer stand to live day to day with the knowledge she would soon waste away and die from cancer. Friends and relatives stated that Laura had refused to undergo the recommended chemotherapy treatments as she was told by doctors that her cancer was inoperable and therapy would only prolong the inevitable.”

  The reporter flipped pages again. “Investigators say there is slim chance of foul play in this case, because Ms. Robbins also indicated her wishes to donate half of her estate, valued at three point five million pounds, to a local cancer research facility.”

  Cancer. Suicide. Why? Why would Jamison attach himself to a woman dying of cancer? Because of her money? Then it clicked. “Michelle, where is the autopsy report for the bank teller?”

  Michelle pointed. “In the dresser.”

  Aaron grabbed the file from the drawer and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for, the murdered woman’s medical history. His finger tapped the pages. “Cancer. She had cancer too. That’s why Jamison was spending time at the hospital.” He looked up at Michelle, and then at everyone else. “Jamison wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. He wasn’t running loose on the streets of England slaughtering innocents.”

  Katya’s face went ashen. “Culling the herd.”

  “Yep. Jamison was hunting for the weak and diseased. The ones who were going to die anyway.”

  “But she was still healthy when she killed herself. She didn’t look sick to you did she?” Katya appealed to Aaron with desperation in her eyes. “Did she really kill herself because of the cancer?” Katya’s face presented a question for which she did not want the answer.

  “Laura couldn’t live without Jamison. She was his bloodslave.” Michelle delivered the brutal truth to Katya mercilessly.

  “Oh my god.” She looked at Aaron as if he was the devil born in human form. “I’m going to be sick.” Katya shoved past everyone and headed straight for the door.

  “Wait.” Aaron grabbed at her arm but she shook him off.

  “Don’t touch me! Don’t ever touch me again!” And she was gone.

  He stood there looking at everyone, sick to his stomach, sick with Katya’s distress, sick with
the weight of the situation on his shoulders.

  Urvashi watched him silently, judging with her eyes. Michelle’s look held sympathy. She had loved and lost many bloodslaves, and for that reason she had lectured Aaron endlessly to never put a human being in such a position.

  Ivan’s eyes were cold with accusation. “Well, are you just going to stand there?”

  Aaron was at a loss.

  Ivan pointed his finger at the door. “This is your doing. Go out there and get her. She is angry, hurt, but she should not be alone in this. Go to her.”

  Urvashi looked at him impatiently, as though waiting for him to get a clue.

  Michelle nodded agreement with Ivan. “She needs you more than she knows.”

  Aaron tore a pair of pants from the drawer, slid them on, shoved shoes on his feet, and snagged his blood-stained coat on the way out the door.

  * * * *

  Chapter 26

  Aaron caught up to Katya just as she slipped into a back alley, probably hoping to lose him. “Katya, wait. I just want to talk, wait.” He grabbed her shoulder when she sped up to get away from him.

  She jerked out of his grip and turned on him with tears running down her face. “How did you find me? Are we linked? Oh god, please tell me we’re not linked.”

  He just wanted to hug her and kiss her and make love to her and tell her it would be alright. But it was all too cheap. Nothing he could do or say would make up for what he had already done. So, instead, he smiled at her sheepishly. “No, we are not linked. I can track your scent. It’s kinda strong, like a wet dog.”

  “You son-of-a-bitch!” She punched him, hard. Must have seemed like a good idea, because she followed it up with another and another, punching him over and over in the chest and arms.

  He stood there for her, without blocking, without dodging, and let her do her worst. When he didn’t fight her, she reared back and nailed him with a solid right cross, knocking his head back. That one hurt. Katya hit like a man.