‘Take me instead,’ I demanded.
Both Mel and Carlos regarded me with surprise.
I was fairly shocked by the offer myself. But I’d made a mistake in planning Mel’s rescue and I felt it was important that I try to make amends. ‘Take me instead,’ I told Carlos. ‘You know you want me more than you want her,’ I coaxed. ‘Forget about Mel. Take me instead.’
He laughed and turned his back on me, dismissing the suggestion.
‘Do you still want me to beg?’ I asked coolly. ‘I can get down on my knees, suck your cock and beg, if that’s what it takes.’
The words snared his interest.
His eyebrows shifted upward as he glared at me.
‘Is that what you want, Carlos?’ I asked.
‘No, sweetie,’ Mel cried.
Both Carlos and I ignored her.
He was in front of me and glowered arrogantly. The lilt of a cruel smile twisted the corners of his mouth. ‘You are not offering me anything I don’t already have,’ he taunted. ‘You would beg for me anyway.’ His arm went around my waist and he pulled me into his embrace. One large hand rested on the small of my back. The weight of his erection prodded against my stomach.
And I realised, as repulsive as he was, Carlos made me want him.
I couldn’t understand where the desire came from. Carlos was despicable, untrustworthy and low. He was a vampire who had aligned himself with vampire hunters in order to resume control over a woman who disliked his control. He was physically unattractive and morally destitute. But there was something that made my pussy muscles clench with their voracious and inexplicable need.
The tattoo on my thigh smouldered.
‘Are you going to beg for me, Tessa?’ Carlos laughed.
I closed my eyes and resisted the urge. It was too easy to picture myself falling to my knees, taking his shaft in my hands and then guiding it toward my mouth. The image was so vivid I could taste the salty flavour of his sweat and the residue of musk from Mel’s pussy. My lips were parted and I could even imagine myself saying the words, ‘Please, Carlos. I beg you.’
He laughed.
The sound was enough to break through the haze of my thoughts.
‘You no longer have any will of your own, Tessa,’ he grinned. ‘Our mutual friend, Christine, told you the tattoo on your thigh is a Sumerian power symbol. As long as that is there you cannot defy me or match your will to defeat mine.’ His laughter echoed devilishly around the church.
I glared at him and said nothing.
He raised his hand and I saw he held a stake.
I remembered those times when I had seen him wielding a stake, and thought it was an odd thing for a vampire to carry. Now, knowing he spent his nights with the legion of vampire hunters, I understood why he always had one in his possession.
The length of wood was long and thick and whittled to a needle-like tip.
Carlos placed the stake in my hand with the point aimed toward his chest. He tore open his robe to reveal the thick curls that covered his flesh. Wrapping my fist around the wood, he grabbed my wrist, and then urged me to push the stake forward.
The sharpened tip pressed against his skin.
It dimpled the flesh over his heart.
‘This is the only thing that can kill a wampire,’ he declared. ‘And you no longer possess the will to use it.’ Fixing me with a steely gaze he hissed, ‘If you do not want to be one of my women, if you truly detest the idea of being my slave, you will find the strength to impale me now. But, because you secretly covet my mastery, you are powerless to strike me down.’
It was the same game he had played with me twice before. I knew the rules: I was expected to open my palm and allow the stake to clatter harmlessly to the floor.
Perhaps I did crave his domination: he seemed more sure on that point than I could ever be. And perhaps the tattoo on my thigh exerted a control that would prevent me from doing what I really wanted. The situation was fraught with so many variables I was no longer sure of anything.
‘Do you have the strength to kill me, Tessa?’ Carlos taunted. ‘Do you have the will to do what you want? Or are you happy to spend your immortality enslaved to this world’s one true wampire?’
I pushed the stake forward.
Carlos regarded me with an expression that was more surprised than pained. He clutched at his chest and stared at the length of wood that now penetrated his black heart. Amazed, he staggered back and then fell to his knees.
‘It’s pronounced, vampire, Carlos,’ I told him. ‘Not wampire: vampire.’
Staring at me with glazed eyes, Carlos said nothing.
The clatter of footsteps shattered the silence inside St Germain’s. Christine and Alan burst into the church. They were followed by Dean. Their frantic footfalls pounded against the thin carpet that covered the aisle.
‘Darling!’ Christine wailed. ‘What on earth have you done?’
I glanced down at Carlos’s fallen body. Alan rushed past me, hurrying to Mel, embracing her and assuring her that everything would now be all right. The three blondes, with their prey forgotten, gathered by the pulpit. They studied me in stunned silence. Their gazes repeatedly fluttered from me to the body on the chancel. Christine and Dean rushed to my side and I was torn between their barrage of questions.
‘What the hell have you done, Tess?’
‘Why didn’t you wait for me, darling?’
‘Do you know what’s going to happen to you now?’
‘Do you know what the council are going to do about this?’
Waving their concerns aside, I stepped past them and walked toward the three blondes. I wasn’t looking for the detail but my gaze found the top of each woman’s thighs. The tattoos that had marked their flesh were no longer there and I knew, without needing to look, that I was no longer burdened with Carlos’s mark.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered. ‘It was never my plan to get rid of Carlos. I…’ I faltered. The words seemed inadequate. Carlos had been their master and they had worshipped him. Whatever I said to them couldn’t compensate for the loss I had inflicted. Miserably, I hung my head and said, again, ‘I’m sorry.’
The blonde with the fluttering eyelashes broke the silence.
‘Fuck him,’ she decided. ‘Carlos was a bastard.’
A second blonde stroked my arm. ‘We prefer you to Carlos.’
‘That’s right,’ the third agreed.
‘Will you come and live with us now, Tessa?’
‘Please, Tessa?’
‘Tease us, Tessa? Dominate us? Play with us at the pool?’
Their reaction surprised me. I stepped back, not sure how to respond, only grateful that the situation had reached a happy resolution. Those thoughts were whipped from my mind when Christine grabbed my left arm and Dean grabbed my right.
‘There’ll have to be a trial, Tess.’
‘The council will want to know what happened, darling.’
‘Dead bodies in a church, Tess?’ Dean muttered. ‘There’s no way this one can be covered up. Someone at the station will want to know. And there aren’t enough illegal immigrants for me to pin this on some pot-washer from the Ukraine.’ With a heavy sigh he said, ‘You’re going to be charged for this.’
Christine pushed Dean aside, telling him she was my legal representative. Dragging me to a corner, lowering her voice to a whisper, she said, ‘You’ve got no choice, darling. The council will hear about this and, when they do, you’ll be in serious trouble. Your best defence will be to lie.’
Everything was happening too fast. I opened my mouth to tell her as much but Christine didn’t allow me to interrupt.
‘Tell them you found out about Carlos’s double life as a vampire and a member of the legion of vampire hunters,’ she suggested brightly. ‘Tell them you confronted him about it and say, Carlos was so embittered with regret and remorse for the way he had abused his fellow vampires, he impaled himself with a stake.’
She grinned, clearly proud of
her own imagination.
I shook my head adamant that, however things turned out, I would never stand before a court and embarrass myself with such an obvious and pathetic lie.
Chapter Twenty-four
‘…and so,’ Tessa concluded, ‘embittered with regret and remorse for the way he had abused his fellow vampires, Carlos impaled himself with the stake.’
Tessa finished the words and stared expectantly at the judge. She wanted to see Christine’s face, and get some idea if the redhead thought she had delivered the story with sufficient conviction. But, because Christine was also watching the judge and eagerly awaiting his reaction, Tessa had no way of gauging the lie’s success.
‘That’s your story?’ the judge asked. His tone was flat and gave away nothing.
‘Yes, your honour.’
‘You claim that you didn’t murder Carlos. You’re telling me he had inveigled his way into the legion of vampire hunters, taken control of their group, and was using their resources to torment and abuse vampires? You’re saying, after he showed you your captive friend, he was overcome with remorse for his actions and killed himself?’
‘He had seemed peculiarly depressed during the day I spent with him,’ Tessa said quickly. ‘He spent a lot of time listening to Nirvana. I don’t think that’s good for anyone with a disposition toward suicide.’
‘Does the prosecution have anything to say about this?’ the judge asked. He glanced pointedly at Dean.
Dean climbed from his seat and shook his head.
Before he had the opportunity to speak, Christine was shouting over him. ‘If it pleases your honour, I move to have all the charges against my client dropped. She’s been arrested and incarcerated without due cause. Dropping all the charges against her is the fairest thing you can do, darling.’
Tessa held her breath.
The judge raised his gavel and slammed it against the bench.
‘Case dismissed.’
Tessa sighed with relief as Christine embraced her. The court broke into a hubbub of exclamations and frenzied chatter. The jury began to climb from their seats and Tessa saw the figures from the viewing gallery rush toward the stairs as they hurried down to the dock. One of the guards that had led her into the court released her wrists from the cuffs. Another produced a cloak and placed it demurely over her shoulders.
She thanked him and smiled.
‘I knew you’d get off,’ Mel grinned. She had stopped kissing Alan long enough to spit the words. Her eyes were bright with excitement and she seemed to bubble with an effervescent glow that was almost sexual. ‘I just knew you’d get off.’
‘That was a given, darling,’ Christine sneered. ‘I was defending her.’
Dean approached Tessa’s seat in the dock at the same time as the three women in widow’s veils approached. He looked suave in the black suit, more debonair and well groomed than Tessa was used to seeing him. She considered him coolly as he stepped closer.
‘I hope you didn’t mind my acting as prosecutor,’ he said calmly. ‘I didn’t like the idea of the job being handled by someone who might have been competent enough to see you sentenced.’
Tessa nodded. ‘Your help was appreciated, Dean. Thank you.’
He paused, looking as though he was torn between needing to ask something and not knowing how to broach the subject. ‘Would there be any hope of us two getting back together?’ he started quickly. He glanced pointedly at Alan and Mel before adding, ‘If a priest and a vampire can find enough common ground to make their relationship work, I’m pretty sure a vampire and a mere cop can…’
Tessa placed a finger on his lips to silence him. ‘Let’s discuss this at the party I’m throwing.’ She glanced querulously at Christine and asked, ‘Can you give Dean directions to Carlos’s former home?’ With a tight grin for Dean she explained, ‘I’ll be living there from now on.’
‘You’ve organised a party?’ Mel said cheerfully.
Tessa glanced at the three women in widow’s veils. ‘You did make preparations for a party, didn’t you?’
They nodded in unison. One of them pulled away her hat to reveal the blunt-cut blonde bob that had been hidden beneath. The other two followed her lead. They started to speak for Tessa in an eager rush that mingled their words.
‘Yes, Tessa…’
‘…mistress…’
‘…everything is prepared just as you’d asked.’
Satisfied with the way they had obeyed her instructions, Tessa wrapped the cowl around her shoulders. She allowed Christine to lead her from the courtroom while Alan, Mel and the blondes followed. And she quietly vowed, now that the court case was behind her, she would spend a few lazy days learning to enjoy her new life as a vampire.
THE END
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Once Bitten Page 22