Romance with a Bite

by Tamsin Baker

  He’d find out tomorrow. Alain stifled a yawn. He had sleep to catch up on from the night before. Thankfully so far they’d managed to keep the murder out of the media, but that couldn’t be guaranteed. Stuff always got out there and he didn’t want the added stress of having to answer for a leak.

  As he drove to his apartment, Alain was more aware than usual of the darkness. The shadows, the cloud-shaded moon. He couldn’t even imagine no longer being able to see the light. Enjoy the sun.

  But then the drive for survival probably overrode any feelings of loss. He’d never really thought about it before. Vampires had been an open part of society for as long as he could remember and held no more interest for him than any other race. Until now.

  Now all the old myths and realities and fears of the past ran through his mind.

  A text messaged beeped as he parked the car.

  So, did you learn anything relevant, or just get a bit more of a vampire fix?

  Juliet knew him too well. She had left Eternel after Katrine’s performance and obviously hadn’t totally bought his line about staying to get more a feel for things.

  I have nothing to report ��

  Sweet dreams

  That’s what made her such a great partner. They could joke about personal stuff, but she’d not so subtly make her point.

  ***

  Alain pressed another colored pin into the map of Paris, marking vampire clubs. Eternel was the closest to the murder site but that alone wasn’t reason enough to see its occupants as primary suspects. Until they had more to go on, every Parisian vampire was of interest.

  ‘No one we’ve spoken to so far raises suspicions.’ Juliet was back at her desk, flicking through her notebook.

  ‘The clubs are obvious places to find them, but surely not every vampire in Paris is associated with a club. Some must just live quiet lives. Well not ‘live’ I guess.’

  ‘Is that politically incorrect?’

  ‘Probably not, but I won’t tell if you won’t. What chance our perpetrator is part of an enclave, and not just some random vampire in amongst everyone else?’

  ‘At least we have a reasonably narrow suspect pool.’

  ‘Your positivity doesn’t give us any leads. We might as well know the killer was blond for all the good it does.’

  It frustrated him more than he’d expected that they had nothing to go on. His solve rate was one of the best in the city and he had a reputation to uphold.

  ‘Do we really have any chance? It’s not like we can compare fang marks to anything, or anyone. And do we even know if they leave DNA?’

  Usually Juliet came up with obscure questions that very often led to a new line of thinking on a murder. This line was totally logical, but just sounded so ridiculous.

  ‘Is there anything in the records from the last killing?’

  ‘I’ve got someone tracking down the paperwork, but no idea if anything like that was even noted. It was decades ago.’

  ‘Don’t suppose there’s anyone still around who was on the case back then?’ There were a few old timers in the department, but he wouldn’t ask unless the records gave them nothing. With the delicate nature of this case, information needed to stay contained.

  Alain pulled on his jacket and grabbed his phone. ‘Ring me if the paperwork yields anything. I’m going to check Katrine’s pizza place alibi.’

  ***

  ‘Oh yes, Katrine was here on Friday night. Well, Saturday morning. Late, as usual. Around three.’

  ‘So, you know her quite well?’

  ‘As well as you can know a patron over time.’

  He’d been upfront about who he was when he’d asked to speak to Jean-Pierre, but not the reason for his interest. There was no obligation to divulge that.

  ‘Is Katrine in trouble?’ His tone came across like fatherly concern.

  ‘Not at all. We just need to clarify a few things. Do you remember what she ordered?’ He wasn’t going to ask outright whether she ate anything.

  ‘Her usual. A pizza and a café au lait. At her usual table.’ He pointed to a table for one in the back corner.

  Why would she come here, order pizza and not eat it? Had vampires evolved somehow that they now also ate food? He really needed to brush up on what was myth and what was reality now?

  The memory of Katrine’s hot kiss in the doorway jogged his memory. ‘Does she always come alone?’

  ‘As far as I know. I might not have been here every time she’s been in.’

  There wasn’t much more he could ask that was relevant. ‘Thank you for your time.’ They shook hands and Alain left.

  Back in the car he made minimal notes. Even though there should be nothing to see in daylight, he’d drive past Eternel.

  There was a couple in front of the black door, taking a selfie with the gold Eternal sign behind them. The guy then grabbed his girl and playfully pretended to bite her neck.

  Alain shuddered. Not so funny anymore.

  He looked up at the two rows of windows above the club, all shrouded with dark shutters. Except the one at the end. That window was open and curtainless.

  He knew from Lisette that all the women lived on the premises, and true to vampire myth, slept during the day. But someone was moving about in the room. He couldn’t make out any detail. A cleaner perhaps? He hadn’t asked if the club employed any humans.

  One thing that wasn’t myth, he knew, was vampires’ aversion to sunlight. While synthetic blood had been developed, modern science hadn’t yet been able to cure their sensitivity to sunlight. Whoever was up there might give a less biased view of the residents.

  Alain parked, crossed the road and rapped the gothic-looking wrought iron knocker on the heavy black door. Waited, then knocked again.

  No one came, and he had no way, no right, to force whoever it was to open the door.

  Back in his car, he sat and watched some more. Maybe they would leave soon. He could spare an hour.

  Half an hour later his patience was rewarded when the black door opened.

  And Katrine stepped out.

  She wasn’t swathed from head to toe. To the contrary, she wore a bright green, full-skirted dress with thin straps so her arms and shoulders were bare. She didn’t ignite in a ball of flame, or even start to sizzle a little.

  Katrine pulled the door closed behind her, slid on a pair of large sunglasses and the strap of a bag onto her shoulder. As she strode along the sidewalk, the sun turned her hair into a halo of copper around her face.

  Alain’s mind buzzed with thoughts and questions. She looked amazing. Had he missed the memo about vampires now being able to go outside? If she wasn’t a vampire, why hadn’t she said so? He couldn’t keep his eyes off her body in that dress. What else had she lied about?

  Their suspect was absolutely a vampire, and if he was to believe his eyes, Katrine wasn’t.

  He watched her figure receding in his side mirror.

  CHAPTER 7

  Sleep eluded her.

  Lucien’s kiss, his possession of her mouth, in the doorway had stayed in her mind and resonated in her body for minutes, hours after they’d said goodnight. Closing her eyes to try and sleep only heightened the memory. Not so much the sensations from that last kiss but the unexpected way her body had thrummed with pleasure when he’d nipped her lip.

  Even bringing herself to orgasm remembering how it felt to be held against his body, failed to bring sleep. As daylight broke, she gave up.

  She slid out from the tangled sheets and drew back the curtains to a cloudless, cerulean sky. All sign of the night’s rain had evaporated, and her stomach had rumbled.

  Silence filled every corner of the building as she closed the front door behind her. No one else would surface until dusk. Someone might well be awake in their light-proofed rooms, but they kept to themselves.

  Her 50s inspired sundress brushed against her calves as she entered (bakery name). The aroma of fresh baking and coffee hung enticingly in the air and her stomach rum
bled again. Who’d be a vampire and miss out on buttery pastry and delicious coffee? No thanks.

  Most mornings she ate in her room. Most people’s breakfast time was her last meal before sleep. Meals were a solitary thing. The women wouldn’t have minded if she ate in one of the common areas, but Katrine preferred not to draw attention to their differences. For them, and for herself.

  As she took her food to a table out on the footpath, she wondered what Lucien was doing for breakfast. As physically close as they’d been, she knew little about him. Which was how she usually preferred it on the occasions when she sought out male company.

  The brioche was delicious, and still warm. Katrine licked a smear of butter from her lips and remembered the touch of Lucien’s mouth. His gentleness, yet his possession.

  Thoughts about the men she met rarely lasted longer than the moment. But her time with Lucien was unlike most of her liaisons with its sizzling chemistry, but there was no rush to take it to its inevitable conclusion.

  Nice.

  Hot.

  And something she’d fantasized about for more than a year.

  Katrine smiled to herself. Weren’t women supposed to fantasize about mind-blowing sex? She’d had that, many times. Her fantasies, cravings, were for the deeper connections she’d not let herself have.

  Until last night. Until Lucien.

  And, she reluctantly admitted, while Inspector Alain Donet’s visit had sent all sorts of panic through her, his smooth good looks had also played more than a little havoc with her body.

  She’d met two sexy, interesting men in one night.

  Maybe you’re a bit of a slut, Katrine.

  Nothing wrong with that. She was a healthy young woman with healthy appetites which she usually kept restrained. But she didn’t have eternity like her vampire family.

  Her mortality rarely played on her mind. That she’d grown up among women who’d never aged was just the way it was.

  But eventually she’d age beyond where they would always stay and she didn’t know how that would play out. Maybe she needed more mornings like this. Human mornings with breakfast and daylight. Slowly wean herself off the night world.

  How good would it be to be to sit here with someone? Have a coffee and a croissant. Take a walk down to the river. Hold hands. Be herself.

  As she watched life go on outside the café, and inside it, Katrine didn’t want to go back to the club.

  ***

  It never rains, but it pours. Inspector Donet was talking to Lisette again and Lucien sat at the same small table.

  He’d caught her eye the moment she’d entered the salon, but then the quiet corner had been the first place she’d looked. As much as she wanted to go to him, she was here to work and not indulge her growing attraction.

  She moved among the tables, happy enough to mingle and play her part, but the lingering memory of Lucien’s mouth, his body made her more conscious than usual that she was playing a part. Not being herself.

  As she took a seat at a table of young women dressed in black lace, Katrine glanced to the back of the room. Lucien raised his glass to her.

  ‘How’s your night going?’ she said to the women.

  ‘Fabulous,’ one replied.

  ‘This place is so sexy,’ said another.

  ‘Pity there’s no guy vampires,’ added the third. ‘That would be so hot.’

  Katrine loved her vampire family but had never really understood the fascination.

  ‘What would be the attraction?’

  The women all contemplated her question before Number Three replied. ‘They’d be mysterious, maybe a little bit dangerous.’

  Like Lucien. Was he watching her now? Did he think the same about her? Was it just curiosity that motivated his attention?

  ‘So, what were they like?’ Number Three’s eyes widened in anticipation.

  Her only knowledge of male vampires was from Lisette and the girls. Hopefully she could get away with second-hand information.

  ‘As varied as human men. Some good looking, some not so much. Some good. Some bad.’

  ‘Is it different with human men? Who’s better?’ Number Two put in her two cents worth.

  ‘You can’t ask that, Marie.’ The admonishment in Number Three’s voice wasn’t enough to conceal her own interest in the answer.

  ‘Even vampires don’t kiss and tell.’ Katrine hoped they’d buy her evasion.

  ‘So you have been with a human guy?’

  Katrine gave them an enigmatic smile. She usually had to fend of some sort of questioning most nights, but tonight it weighed more heavily on her.

  ‘I’d better circulate some more.’ Katrine stood and smiled.

  The three heads all came together in whispered conversation as she moved away.

  She wouldn’t go to Lucien yet. It would be hard to take herself away once she sat at his table, and she was here to work. For a little while more at least.

  Before she could move to another group of patrons, there was a touch on her elbow. The tingle that skittered along her bare arm quickly evaporated as she turned to face Alain Donet.

  ‘Could I have a word with you, Katrine.’

  ***

  The alarm in her eyes wasn’t unexpected, but not what he’d like to see in those amber depths.

  Officially he was off duty, and even though Katrine was no longer a suspect, she could have relevant information or insights that might prove useful.

  but he needed to tell her that he knew her secret. And that he’d like to take her for pizza.

  ‘We can talk in the office.’

  Wariness shone in her eyes. Eyes he now knew belonged to a warm-blooded human woman. Who didn’t have fangs. Was a part of him relieved that he wasn’t attracted to a vampire? Was that discrimination?

  She opened the office door and led the way inside. The Tiffany lamp cast soft rainbow light and Katrine moved to the large desk, leaning against it rather than taking a seat. Light from the lamp caught the red contents of the small glass bottle on her pearls.

  Alain swallowed hard. She was a fake vampire. Reason told him that a fake vampire would carry fake blood. Part of the effect. Part of the role she played.

  He wasn’t squeamish. A cop couldn’t be. But blood, fake or otherwise, in this context was a far cry from bloodshed at a murder scene.

  ‘Interesting necklace.’

  Her hand went to the vial, closing it between her fingers.

  ‘Real blood?’

  ‘Does it matter? Or do you think it’s blood from that murder?’

  He couldn’t help but smile. Their previous conversation had been short and to the point. No chance for her personality to show through. He was enjoying this feisty Katrine, but there was a serious issue to address.

  ‘I know it’s not, Katrine. You aren’t even a suspect.’

  Her eyes gave nothing away. No relief, or questions. Had her upbringing here made her so composed. There was so much he wanted to know about her life.

  ‘I know you’re not a vampire, Katrine.’

  Her long-lashed eyes fluttered momentarily before she met his gaze again. ‘Oh yes?’

  ‘Yes. I saw you go out this morning.’

  Katrine dropped her chin for a moment, then pushed herself away from the desk and flopped into one of the armchairs.

  ‘So are you going to expose my secret?’

  ‘There’s no need for that, but you might be able to help me. Help us,’ he corrected.

  She looked up at him with a tilt of her head. ‘Inside information in return for your silence?’

  He breathed a sigh of relief when she smiled.

  ‘You’re in a unique position. You can give us insights that might be of assistance.’

  ‘Like whether any of my family still have a bloodlust?’

  ‘We need clarification about various aspects about vampires. Things we can ask them, of course, but …’

  ‘But you don’t want to aggravate them? Don’t want to make them angry?’
>
  ‘Behavior patterns that the public aren’t privy to.’

  Katrine didn’t answer, just tilted her head to the other side and looked at him expectantly.

  ‘There’s not much on record for us to refer to. Could we talk, somewhere away from here. Over pizza? After you finish, or tomorrow?’

  ‘Pizza would be nice.’

  It was that easy?

  ‘Before opening tomorrow night? My sleep’s out of whack after being out yesterday.’

  ‘Whatever works for you.’ He’d almost forgotten the reason for her sleep disturbance. That doorway kiss. He watched her mouth as they arranged a time. Perfectly plump lips that looked velvety soft with their red lipstick. He wanted to kiss her so hard that it smeared.

  There were women in Paris who weren’t already obviously interested in someone else, but Katrine drew him like a magnet.

  ‘Six o’clock? At La Boheme?’

  ‘It’s a date.’

  She was teasing, but his heart did a crazy little skip. If he dropped her back at Eternel, would she kiss him in the doorway?

  He quickly pushed aside that thought. Back to business.

  ‘I’ll be there.’

  ‘I know I’m asking about family, Katrine, but we didn’t think more lives might be at risk. I won’t keep you from work.’ He moved to open the door.

  ‘6.30 tomorrow then,’ Katrine’s enticing mouth rose into a smile as she moved past him. The liquid in the vial at her throat glinted ruby red.

  ***

  Katrine had disappeared through a door with the Inspector. Was she in trouble?

  He watched the door, and waited, not doubting that she’d come back and sit with him soon. He wanted that. He wanted a lot of things that were no longer his to crave.

  And then she was back, moving through the room and the vivid memory of how her body had felt against his flared in his body. His emotions hadn’t battled so ferociously within him since he’d had to come to terms with the need to kill to survive. Katrine had rekindled the humanity in him.

  There was no point in fanning that flame. No point in torturing himself with what he couldn’t regain. The only flames that would bring him peace were those that would envelop him when he met the sun.

  Their kiss would be with him in his last moments. The way her soft mouth had opened and invited. The slide of her red lipsticked lips over his. The warmth of her tongue dancing with his. Brief moments were all he could have.