“So the curse of Lilith is gone?” I asked Snow.
“No, but she is. For now.”
“She must have possessed your groupies. What does the curse have to do with them?”
“You have to know?”
“I deserve to know.”
His sunglasses surveyed the stage, not me. “Why did I offer no more than the Brimstone Kiss to the mosh pit? Remember, Delilah, if I can only give pleasure, not feel it, there’s no point in anything more. No possibility.”
Snow pleading impotency? That stopped me cold.
“So that’s really true? Must hurt,” I said.
Maybe I’d imagined my effect on him, or that it had fueled Lilith’s rage, my own form of arrogance. Maybe the heat I thought I’d been picking up had just been frustration.
He nodded. “You have no idea, Delilah.”
“No satisfaction for eternity? Kinda mean. All because of Lilith?”
“What do you expect from a bitch goddess?”
“Those groupies,” I pointed out, “gave their all for your after-concert Brimstone smooch. Then you stopped doing it. You can’t blame them resenting your going cold kiss on them.”
“I know you encouraged them into ‘recovering” from an addiction to the hope of the kiss, but it did deliver more than they ever imagined.”
“Multiple orgasms from a single kiss that they can never get again? You never smooch the same groupie twice. A vibrator is a lot more reliable.”
“No wonder you came to Vegas an old maid.”
“Twenty-four isn’t old.” He had me grating answers between my teeth, as usual.
“It is for a virgin.”
“Better than being vampire bait. And my current social life is apparently way more interesting than yours. So you got nothing from all the Brimstone Kisses you handed out but an ego boost and the sadistic pleasure of knowing your fans would ultimately remain in the same condition as you, unsatisfied.”
“According to their signature song, it worked for the Rolling Stones.”
“You sent Dr. Jack to my cottage… You hired me on the sly. Why?”
“Not me directly.”
“Grizelle doesn’t count. She loves you. She hates me. Yet she rolled over and let me lead. It’s not like we were dancing here. Why?”
“I ordered her to.”
“Why?
“Maybe because I knew you’re the only woman in Vegas who wouldn’t be distracted by the opportunity to maul me.”
I snorted. “You so flatter yourself, but you’re right there.”
“Maybe because you’re the only woman in Vegas with still a streak of mercy in her soul.”
That I couldn’t answer. After the Millennium Revelation. mercy was a weakness. Maybe I was the only woman in Vegas who could break—? No, I didn’t want to go there.
Snow’s colorless fingertips reached out to the familiar around my wrist, and stroked the whorls of flowing silver Art Nouveau tresses. The familiar had formed and irrevocably attached itself to me after I’d idly touched a lock of Snow’s albino hair because it reminded me of my white Tibetan terrier, Achilles. He’d always been a heel-nipper, but biting the vampire TV anchorman who was trying to fang me had been the death of him. Blood poisoning. I was not ruling out some sort of paranormal resurrection someday.
Snow sensed my sober state. “I know what you despise, but what do you want, Miss Street?”
I wanted the familiar gone and Achilles back from the dead, but no obligations.
Snow persisted. “I’m the momentarily grateful mogul. You have me at your mercy, like Samson under another Delilah’s spell. Extort me. It’s the human thing to do.”
Now, did the unmerciful portion of my soul feel like taking him up on that offer? Did some taint of Lilith’s jealous, demonic fury linger with me, wanting an eternal piece of him too? Nothing personal.
“Damned white of you,” I said. “You’ve run up quite an unpaid tab at my little Darkside Bar. I’ll take out what you owe me in IOUs as needed.”
“That’s pretty vague coming from a hard-boiled dame like you.”
“So suffer for a while longer. You’re apparently used to it.”
As I walked away, I considered the endless options of a future with Snow in my debt.
I’d start with fifty percent of all Albino Vampire cocktail sales.
No, seventy.
Claude Rains in The Invisible Man film
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1286000128/tt0024184?ref_=ttmd_md_nxt
ORIGINAL COCKTAIL RECIPES
from Delilah’s Darkside Bar
The Albino Vampire cocktail
“A sweet, seductive girly drink, but with unsuspected kick.”
—werewolf mob enforcer Sansouci, in Brimstone Kiss
Invented in Dancing with Werewolves
1 jigger of white Crème de Cocoa
1 jigger of vanilla Stolichnaya
1 jigger of Lady Godiva white chocolate liqueur
1/2 jigger Chambord raspberry liqueur
[Other brands may be substituted]
Pour vodka and liqueurs in a martini glass in this order: Crème de Cocoa, vanilla vodka, and finally the white chocolate liqueur. Stir gently. Drizzle in the raspberry liqueur. Don’t mix or stir. The raspberry liqueur will slowly sink to the bottom, so the white cocktail has a blood-red base (which adds a thrilling taste sensation at the end).
http://www.juno-books.com/albino_vampire_cocktail.html
The Brimstone Kiss Cocktail
“Sounds like something you’d sip on all night long and I’d knock back in a couple slugs.”—Casablanca’s Rick Blaine/Humphrey Bogart CinSim in Brimstone Kiss
2 jiggers Inferno Pepper Pot vodka
1 jigger DeKuyper “Hot Damn!” Cinnamon Schnapps
2 jiggers Alizé Red Passion
Jalapeño pepper slice (optional)
2ounces Champagne (for version 2)
Version 1: Pour all ingredients into a martini shaker with ice. Shake gently. Pour into a martini glass garnished with jalapeño pepper slice. A hell of a drink!
Version 2: Pour all ingredients into a tall footed glass filled with ice. Stir well. Top off with Champagne. A frothy but potent libation that might lead to pleasant damnation.
http://www.juno-books.com/brimstone_kiss_cocktail.html
The Vampire Sunrise Cocktail
“Umm, subtle yet spicy…or modern women like us.”—Psychic psychologist Helena Troy Burnside in Vampire Sunrise
6 ice cubes
1 1/2 oz. of pepper vodka
1/2 oz. DeKuyper “Hot Damn!” Cinnamon Schnapps
4-5 oz. orange juice, well shaken
1 oz. Alizé Gold Passion orange cognac
1/2-1 oz. grenadine
Put ice cubes in 12-ounce highball glass. Pour in pepper vodka and cinnamon schnapps, add orange juice to fill to desired level. Add two ounces of orange cognac. Last, pour in grenadine, which will settle to the bottom. Add ice to drink as it melts, creating a longer and more sensual experience. This drink is no hit-and-run vampire bite.
http://www.juno-books.com/vampire-sunrise-cocktail.html
The Silver Zombie Cocktail
“We’ve got one hot little Roomba robot vacuum cleaner on our hands. Master? I wonder if she does dudes.”—Irma, Delilah’s alter ego in Silver Zombie, discussing the Futura female robot from silent film classic, Metropolis
3 ounces chilled Fuse brand blueberry raspberry bottled water
3 ounces chilled lemon-lime sparkling bottled water or Champagne
1 ounce Jose Cuervo Silver tequila
1 1/2 ounces lime vodka
1 ounce Alizé Bleu with vodka, cognac, and tropical fruit
Dash Blue Curaçao to dribble down the inside of the glass and sink to the bottom. Imbibers should be wary that they don't sink to the bottom in the snare of the real Silver Zombie
http://www.juno-books.com/silver-zombie-cocktail.html
The Virtual Virgin Cocktail
“
Love it. A Virtual Virgin. Wouldn’t that be fun to dabble in again?”—Psychic psychologist Helena Troy Burnside in Virtual Virgin
Virtuous Virtual Virgin
3 ounces chilled Dr Pepper or Coke
3 ounces chilled lemon-lime sparkling bottled water
1 ounce Rose’s Lime Juice
1 ounce Rose's Cranberry Twist Mix
Layer all ingredients in a Tom Collins glass, with ice to fill and a long-stemmed fresh Bing cherry garnish. This dark brew reminiscent of a hopped-up Cherry Coke allows you to sip in sinless certainty.
Vixen Virtual Virgin
3 ounces of chilled Dr Pepper or Coke
3 ounces of chilled lemon-lime sparkling bottled water
1 ounce Black Cherry vodka
1 ounce lime vodka
1 ounce Rose's lime juice
1 ounce Rose's Cranberry Twist Mix
http://www.juno-books.com/silver-zombie-cocktail.html
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
www.carolenelsondouglas.com
CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS hit national bestseller lists with her third novel, a high fantasy, Six of Swords. She is now the award-winning author of sixty novels in the science fiction/fantasy, mystery/thriller, and women’s fiction genres.
She currently writes the long-running Midnight Louie feline PI, cozy-noir mystery series (Cat in an Alphabet Soup, Cat in an Aqua Storm, Cat on a Blue Monday etc.) and the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, noir urban fantasy series (Dancing with Werewolves, etc.). Both series are set in imaginative variations of Las Vegas. Midnight Louie is a “Sam Spade with hairballs” who prowls the “slightly surreal” Vegas of today, narrating his own interlarded chapters in his alley-cat noir voice. Delilah walks the mean streets of a paranormally post-apocalyptic Sin City, fighting supernatural mobsters with wit and grit.
Douglas was the first author to make a Sherlockian female character, Irene Adler, a series protagonist, with the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Good Night, Mr. Holmes. Her award nominations run from the Agatha to the Nebula. She has won Lifetime Achievement Awards from RT Book Reviews for Mystery, Suspense and Versatility, and was named a Pioneer of Publishing. Her Midnight Louie novels and stories have also won multiple Cat Writers’ Association first-place Muse Medallions, including one for “Butterfly Kiss.” Douglas has e-published the first four Irene Adler novels and some shorter fiction. (www.wishlist.com)
An award-winning daily newspaper reporter, feature writer and editor in Minnesota, she moved to the Sunbelt to write fiction fulltime and was recently inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. Her latest Midnight Louie mystery, Cat in a Yellow Spotlight, will be published on Aug. 26, 2014.
ALSO BY CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
“the leading expert at combining romance with science fiction or fantasy; Douglas has a clear understanding of the requirements of both genres and above-average command of all the requisite techniques…intelligent entertainment.”—Roland Green, Booklist
National Bestselling High and Urban Fantasy Novels
The DELILAH STREET, Paranormal Investigator, series
Dancing with Werewolves…Brimstone Kiss…Vampire Sunrise…Silver Zombie…Virtual Virgin
The SWORD AND CIRCLET series [Irissa the Seeress and Kendric the Wrathman]
“The craft is exceptional—words, people, plot and country are all woven with magic…the deeper meanings of the search shine through, reminiscent in some ways of LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy, yet separate.”—Fantasy Review
Six of Swords…Exiles of the Rynth…Keepers of Edanvant…Heir of Rengarth…Seven of Swords
~~~
The TALISWOMAN
“One of the genre fiction's most creative and innovative voices gifts us with Seed Upon the Wind, the second volume in her highly original Taliswoman trilogy…Douglas has created an otherwhere full of wonders, some of incredible beauty, others of terrifying darkness, and all of them strikingly memorable.”4-1/2 Stars —RT Book Reviews
Cup of Clay…Seed upon the Wind
~~~
The SF JANE DOE thrillers
“Douglas is a superb storyteller, nudging her readers into that willing suspension of disbelief so necessary in good science fiction writing…An excellent tale…the pages practically turn themselves, and the ending will intrude on your thoughts long after the story is over.”—QUANTUM SF and Fantasy Review
Probe…Counterprobe
~~~
National Bestselling Mystery and Suspense Titles
“Her fine Sherlockian novels and her Midnight Louie books have turned her into a genuine mystery star. Pick one up and you'll see why.”—Ed Gorman, founder of Mystery Scene magazine
The New York Times Notable IRENE ADLER Series
“Setting herself the task of creating a heroine worthy of Sherlock Holmes, Douglas…succeeds smashingly. In providing an inventive, believable past for Irene Adler, the one woman (and an American at that) who ever duped Holmes, this lively caper establishes Adler's sleuthing skills...presenting a truly original perspective of the one whom the great detective himself dubbed "the woman". She's a superior woman at that; readers will doff their deerstalkers.”—Publishers Weekly
Good Night, Mr. Holmes…The Adventuress…A Soul of Steel…Another Scandal in Bohemia…Chapel Noir and Castle Rouge [Jack the Ripper duology]…Femme Fatale…Spider Dance
~~~
The Bestselling MIDNIGHT LOUIE Feline PI series
“just about everything you might want in a mystery; among other things, glitzy Las Vegas…real characters, suspense, a tough puzzle…On top of it all, a fine sense of humor and some illuminating social commentary.”—The Prime Suspect
“Las Vegas' feline detective extraordinary returns...an excellent follow-up…and Louie is an irresistible combination of Nathan Detroit and Sam Spade. There is plenty of interest here for a lengthy, fun-filled series.”—Mostly Murder
Cat in an Alphabet Soup [formerly Catnap]…Cat in an Aqua Storm [formerly Pussyfoot]…Cat on a Blue Monday…Cat in a Crimson Haze…Cat in a Diamond Dazzle…Cat in an Emerald Eye…Cat in a Flamingo Fedora…Cat in a Golden Garland…Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt…Cat in an Indigo Mood…Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit…Cat in a Kiwi Con…Cat in a Leopard Spot…Cat in a Midnight Choir…Cat in a Neon Nightmare…Cat in an Orange Twist…Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit…Cat in a Quicksilver Caper…Cat in a Red Hot Rage…Cat in a Topaz Tango…Cat in a Sapphire Slipper…Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme…Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta…Cat in a White Tie and Tails…Cat in an Alien X-Ray…Cat in a Yellow Spotlight…[forthcoming] Cat in a Zebra Zoot Suit…Cat in an Alphabet Endgame
NEON NOIR
Copyright July 2014 Carole Nelson Douglas
BOGIEMAN copyright 2008 in Unusual Suspects. BUTTERFLY KISS copyright 2009 in Love Bites: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2. MONSTER MASH Copyright 2011 in Chicks Kick Butt. SNOW JOB copyright 2012 in Hex Appeal. FILM NOIR Copyright July 2014 Carole Nelson Douglas.
Proofreader: Pat Martin
Images Copyright iStock.com. Copyright Dreamstime.com.
Cover, interior images and book design by Carole Nelson Douglas
Author photo by Sam Douglas
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The copying, reproduction, and distribution of this eBook via any means without permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and refuse to participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s intellectual rights are appreciated.
A WISHLIST B00K
http://www.wishlistpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Meet Me, Delilah Street
BOOGIEMAN:A Delilah Street Story with Humphrey Bogart
BUTTERFLY KISS: Midnight Louie and Delilah Street novella wi
th Midnight Louie, feline PI
MONSTER MASH: A Delilah Street novella with the Lon Chaney acting family
FILM NOIR: A Delilah Street story with Cary Grant
SNOW JOB: A Delilah Street novella with the Invisible Man
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS
Copyright
Neon Noir Page 17