“Devlin?”
“Yeah, that’s him, Devlin.”
“I’m going to tear that son of a bitch apart,” Galen roared.
Fear rose inside me as I slammed the door in Galen’s face. I didn’t want him taking the anger out on me. I waited expecting him to say something or pound on the door, but for the longest time there was nothing. As I turned to walk away there was a soft knock.
I felt compelled to open the door.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
I couldn’t say no. I didn’t even bother to put on my shoes.
I stepped outside and he grabbed me hard, kissing me and tugging at my clothes. I wanted it, I wanted him. How could I not? Even though something told me I shouldn’t.
He impatiently tore at my clothes, exposing a breast. He quickly sank his fangs into it. I squealed with delight as he savagely sucked at my tender flesh. He tore at my jeans until he had a hole ripped through them and my underwear. Two fingers plunged inside my heated sex. I thrust my hips against his hand to make him push harder.
God, I liked it rough and he knew exactly how to get me going. More ripping. My other breast felt the cool air before his lips trapped a nipple in his warm mouth. He grazed the nipple with his teeth while I squirmed in his hands. When his teeth sank into me again I came all over his hand.
While I was still quivering he pushed me away. “Enough foreplay, bitch. It’s time to get really dirty,” he growled.
Something in the tone made me open my eyes.
He wasn’t who I thought he was.
Oh. My. God. What was I doing? What was going on?
I started running. He laughed. “You’ll never out run me, little girl.”
I ran anyway. I ran for my life. I knew he was going to kill me. But I knew I had to fight. I couldn’t just let him take me without a fight.
In moments he was on me. Strong arms and hands everywhere, hurting me, squeezing, bruising tender flesh. The rest of my clothes were ripped away. I was naked and cold on the ground.
His fangs sank into me over and over; my body was a traitor as I came with each new bite. My treacherous body liked the pain. I overflowed with pleasure before he ever roughly forced his cock inside me.
I repeatedly tried to push him off me but couldn’t, I just wasn’t strong enough. He filled me with his huge cock and my body welcomed him with an orgasmic shudder while my mind fought repulsion. I finally gave up fighting while he fucked the life out of me and sucked out my blood.
Then there was nothing.
I fell back onto the cold grass crying and shaking.
She fought. Something went wrong. She came out of the thrall. Yet he held onto the glamour enough to keep me from seeing who he was, she saw him. She realized he wasn’t who she thought. It wasn’t Galen; at least I was pretty sure it wasn’t. She might have thought it was at first but not in the end. I didn’t think.
Strong arms wrapped around me and his scent filled my nostrils. Malone. “Annie, are you Okay You’re crying? Was it that bad?”
“Mike, she fought him. She fought him as much as she could. She just wasn’t strong enough. Something went wrong with his spell, his glamour, she realized he wasn’t who she thought he was, but it was too late, he already had her.”
His arms wrapped around me. Strong, safe, capable. In that moment I didn’t give a damn who saw us together as the horror of Charlotte’s last moments tore through me.
“Did you see who he was?” Mike asked into my hair as he continued to hold me. I shook with emotion and crackling energy.
“No, but she did.”
“How, don’t you see through her eyes?”
“Yeah, but this bastard knows that. He does something, has done something to keep me from seeing him.”
“Just you?”
“I don’t know. Are you thinking we should have another psychic check it out?”
“It couldn’t hurt. I mean we already have a team who can psychically analyze all the evidence…even the body before it goes in for autopsy, on any case and no one else has picked up on anything so far but…” Mike’s words trailed off ending with a heavy sigh.
“But, maybe we need someone better to look at this case, the murders, specifically.”
“Yeah, you’re not offended, are you?”
I pushed him back so I could turn around and look at him. “Mike, you should know I am not petty. I want this murderer stopped. And I am the first to admit this bastard is messing with my magick. I think he’s targeted me as much as he’s targeted these victims, just in a different way. He knows I’m the one who will see what happened so he’s blocking it, but maybe new eyes will see something he’s not expecting.”
Mike smiled at me. “That’s my Annie girl.” He stood up and held out his hand. I took it, and let him help me up off the cool wet grass.
One of the ME’s team walked up to us. “You guys done with the body?”
“Yeah you can get her outta here now,” Mike responded.
“Good, sun’s up, gawkers are going to be straggling in as people head into work. It’s better to get this outta here.” He motioned to the rest of his team and they moved in with a stretcher.
“Sure thing,” Mike said without even looking at him. His eyes were on me as we walked to my car.
“Annie, are you alright? Really? It looked like this one really messed you up. You were shaking through the whole thing and not in a good way. You trembled, you even cried out in pain once. Was it as bad as it looked?”
I couldn’t help myself; I sagged against his strong body. This whole situation was becoming too much for me and the readings were harder to do, more draining. He didn’t hesitate wrapping his arms around me again.
“Mike, it was worse than it looked. The really, really awful part…she enjoyed it, at least some of it. She was into pain. Go figure. I guess that’s why she was with a werewolf.” I almost added ‘and why she was a donor’ but that would have connected her to Galen. “She liked it rough and while he sexually abused her, she fought him, her mind told her it was wrong but her body…her body was wracked with pleasure. Torment of the worst kind because her own mind and body betrayed her.”
Mike’s voice rumbled through his chest against my ear as I leaned into his body and he asked, “Do you think it was part of his spell? To confuse her? Torment her?”
“It’s possible. This vampire is so evil, so sadistic…” A thought popped into my head that I couldn’t share with Malone. I regretfully pulled out of his warm embrace.
“Mike, can I go home and take a shower before I go to the station to record my vision?”
“Sure, Annie, if you think you’re okay to drive. You go ahead. I’ll see you later,” he said with a soft smile. “Just give me call later and let me know you’re all right.”
“Sure,” I mumbled. I drove home furiously recollecting everything I knew about Galen, the things he had told me…and Devlin.
What was their beef about? Obviously they did not get along and Devlin seemed to want to hurt Galen. Was he behind these murders? But how? I hadn’t felt the slightest bit of magick come off him, at least nothing other than basic vampire magick. Of course, I hadn’t gotten anything off Galen either, but both Satinka and Mel had felt strange magick around him at times.
Now I was more confused than ever. I needed to talk to Mel.
Chapter 25
“Are you in your office or are you at home?” I asked Mel.
“I’m down in my office at the station? Where are you?”
“I just left my house. I have some errands to run, then I’ll be in.”
“Was the crime scene bad? It was Charlotte wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, has Galen been found?”
“Troy, one of the Guardians, I think you met him last night, found him wandering around kinda out of it again. He took Galen back to Satinka’s. He’s back in his chamber.”
“You mean prison?”
“It’s for his own good, Wyn. You know that.”
“I know. I am just so damn confused. This is making no sense. And Mel, Galen was there. At Charlotte’s. I saw it in the vision. They argued, sorta. She was afraid of him because of something Devlin said to her.”
“Devlin? I thought he left town.”
“Yeah, so did I. Satinka gave him the boot and told him to get lost. I don’t understand why he’s still hanging around and why he and Galen don’t like each other.”
“Galen didn’t tell you?” Mel asked incredulously.
Now what didn’t I know? “No,” I said flatly.
“They share the same sire.”
“What? The sadistic, freak who sired Galen also sired Devlin? Galen said he was the only victim left. And what’s the deal, no one ever says his name, is he one of those He who must not be named guys?”
“Yeah well…details are a bit hazy. The whole damn situation is a little freaky. Devlin asked to be sired by him. You see, Devlin was one of his customers. He liked to watch and to sometimes play rough. He really got off on the pain and pleasure of Roark’s clients and victims. Devlin wanted to be made into a vampire. He was never on the receiving end of the games like Galen. Devlin wasn’t a victim. No, he liked dishing out the pain and I think he and Galen shared some rather unhappy encounters Galen would rather forget. Anyway, when the rumors spread Galen offed their sire, who called himself Roark, no one knows his real name and if they do they’ve kept it quiet for good reason—you know the whole power of true names thing, anyway, Devlin was not pleased Roark got killed.”
“No wonder there is such animosity between them...and wait, power in a name? I thought that only happened with demons for summoning purposes?”
“We’re not really sure what Roark was. He was more than human to begin with. He was born after his father became head of the vampire council,” Mel said quietly.
“You mean he was born a vampire? I thought born vampires were things of myth and legend, the only born vampires are half-breeds, or mutts?” I asked in shock.
“Well, Roark was a half-breed. He was born to his vampire father and something else. His mother was neither human nor vampire, but no one really seems to know what she was or what happened to her. Roark was raised by his father. Conjecture says Roark was half-demon and after his birth his mother went back to her own dimension and left Roark to be raised by his father.”
“So, if Roark was part demon…”
Mel finished my thought, “Then he has a true name kept a secret so he could not be summoned.”
“But Galen killed him, right?” I asked not really wanting to hear what I knew Mel was going to say.
“Yeah, Galen killed the vampire, but no body, not even any ashes, was ever found. If Roark was really part demon, he could have transcended to the demon dimension when his vampire body died on this plane.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that. Shit, do you think Devlin knows his real name? To summon him back to this plane?”
“Wyn, this line of thought is moving into dangerous territory. I didn’t even want to consider this, to consider a vampire-demon hybrid exists, let alone could be brought back to this plane…and by Devlin. I’ve always dismissed him as a buffoon. This line of thinking is getting real scary, Wyn. We don’t even know what kind of demon he is, so we have no idea what we’re dealing with here.”
“Do you think Roark, or Devlin with Roark’s help, could be behind the murders?” I asked, needing to know if I was going crazy, or if Mel really thought this was possible.
“Devlin is cruel but he’s always been a coward, he’s not that smart, and he doesn’t have the magick it would take to do this. Plus, he’s a council lackey. If he went against the grain, the council would boot him in a heartbeat. He’d lose his comfy little illusion of having a power position, something he would not want at all. He likes being comfortable. Without the council I don’t think he’d be able to do all this . His family money was gone over a century ago.”
“But what if he had Roark’s power? Or what if he thought he wouldn’t need the council once he brought the demon Roark back?” I was becoming increasingly agitated, I needed to see Galen. I needed… something other than to be in the car by myself as the sun rose.
“Wyn, I just don’t know. We’re talking about a lot of ifs and craziness based on conjecture when we have no idea if the stories are even based in fact.”
“I don’t know Mel, something tells me we should take a closer look at Devlin, if only to follow up on the ifs and maybes.”
“We can do that, I just hope we’re not wasting time. Anyway, you still need to stop and see me when you get here okay? I’ve got some other stuff I need to talk to you about and I really have to be able to show you on the computer while I explain it to you.”
“Sure, I’ll be there in about an hour or so.”
Chapter 26
I decided to skip the errands and go straight to the offices of the P.I.T crew. Located in a building behind the offices of the “regular” Flint Police Department, they tried to keep things as separate as possible so the “normals” didn’t get riled up by the goings on of “Others.” Segregation all over again.
I parked in the employee parking lot and went around to the back door to try and avoid Malone. I wasn’t ready to go over my vision yet, needed to talk with Mel first. I snuck down the back stairs and headed to Mel’s office.
As I made my way down the stairs time slowed and turned gooey, like moving through a thick sticky bubble underwater. Something hot and thick coated my skin and left me feeling…altered. I forced myself to move forward, push through the bubble so I could get to Mel’s workroom and find out what the hell was going on.
I forced my body through the viscous bubble and felt a magickal pop. I stood in Mel’s doorway adjusting to the change in atmospheric pressure. Even my eyes adjusted, it felt like they were coated in a weird residue. I blinked and blinked again as bodies and motions came into focus.
Oh. My. Goddess.
Mel was on top of one of her long worktables, dress hiked up around her waist, legs spread wide while a dark skinned man thrust in and out of her fiercely. As my eyes adjusted more I realized the man was Jessel, one of Satinka Tala’s Guardians—a vampire.
His deep thrusts were met with Mel’s moans of pleasure. She obviously enjoyed herself. How could she not? The man was very, very well endowed and gorgeous, in a dangerous way. His head was shaved bald, tattoos covered what I could see of his back and arms, and strong powerful muscles rippled everywhere.
I stood there and watched, completely transfixed by the erotic scene playing out in front of me. My lower body tightened with need. I was suddenly overcome with such desire I could barely stand, yet I was rooted to the spot. Watching. Wanting.
Jessel’s smooth and velvety dark skin looked like rich dark chocolate and the contrast of his dark skin against Mel’s cappuccino cream flesh was arousing—to say the least. His large ebony shaft plunged in and out of her wet folds, plunging, thrusting so deep inside her I wanted to scream. My body shook as their moans and grunts turned stronger, louder, as he pushed into her harder, faster, deeper.
Goddess help me, if I didn’t get out of there I’d come right along with them.
I fled Mel’s office. This time there wasn’t a sticky bubble to push through. But I could still feel the remnants of the substance on my skin. It tingled with heat.
I ran up the stairs and straight into Malone’s office.
He stood by his desk holding his cell phone, a look of surprise lit up his face as I ran in and slammed the door behind me.
The sound of the click filled the room as the lock engaged behind me. We stared at each other for a breathless moment.
Then I made a move toward him. He gazed at me warily as he put down the phone.
“What’s wrong Anwyn?” he asked me, couldn’t hide anything from this cop.
“Nothing’s wrong? Why do you ask?” I tried to act calm, but my voice came out breathy and deeper than usual.
&
nbsp; “You’re flushed, out of breath, and you have a wild look in your eyes. Something is going on.” He backed up as I moved closer.
I laughed. “Why Mike Malone, you’re not afraid of little ol’ me, are you?”
“Afraid of you, no. Afraid for you, maybe. Such strange stuff has been going o…”
I silenced him with myself. I threw my small body at his large frame and ended up in his arms. I wrapped my legs around his torso and wrapped my arms around his shoulders pulling his face toward mine while he sputtered something along the lines of “what the hell.” I pressed my lips to his and thrust my tongue into his mouth, tasting him, relishing his aroma, wanting him so very bad.
He stood very still, just holding me for a moment and letting me do what I would do to him. He seemed lost in thought, probably about me.
I think his man-ness won over good sense because he turned around and sat us down on the small sofa so I ended up on his lap. He responded to my kisses and pushed forth with his own as his hands rucked up my skirt and shoved aside the tiny thong covering the wet entrance to my body.
He caressed my heated flesh while I fumbled between us trying to find his zipper. His fingers slid around my moist center dipping into me, making me moan and wriggle against him.
I hastily unzipped his pants, fighting through the jumble of tucked in shirt and underwear to find a length of hard steel buried amid the fabric. His cock throbbed and pulsed in my hand. Hard, so ready.
I pushed his hands out of the way and positioned him just right…then impaled myself. His smooth hardness easily slid into my wetness, a perfect fit.
He didn’t move underneath me as we stared at each other for an endless silent moment. His dark blue eyes filled with shock and surprise, but quickly replaced with desire as I started moving on top of him.
Mighty Goddess, he felt sooo good. He finally began to move under me. He thrust into me slow, hitting the most delicious places on my body, as I slid down, deeper, farther, the sensation sent me spiraling into a cataclysm of immensely pleasurable proportions.
“My God, Anwyn, you are so tight, so hot and so wet,” he moaned against my neck, into my hair. “This is so amazing. I never thought I’d actually be able to have you, to feel you. I have dreamed of this…”
Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) Page 14