by Anya Nowlan
And the address is definitely correct.
“Alright! I’m coming in! You’ve been given due notice!” he called tentatively, before taking a step forward.
The door slammed shut behind him with a bang. When he turned around to try and open it, the lock clicked.
“What the-…”
With that scowl getting ever deeper now, to the point that it was threatening to crease his brow permanently, Vix tried the door a couple more times and then gave up with a stifled growl. He stalked forward in the house, his body on edge now, listening to every creak and sound.
Here and there, he could spot obvious signs of recent activity. Hell, he wasn’t naïve, he knew this had to be some sort of a show thing, because who else would need nearly half a ton of fake blood in Salem, right? But still, the less rational and sternly in control part of him was sort of feeling iffy about the whole thing.
Most of the windows were boarded up. Though he could tell that there was a path that was meant to be followed, the alternatives hadn’t been boarded up yet. He walked along the narrow hallway, ignoring the doors to either side of him.
When the lights turned from dull to crimson red in an instant, he almost dropped the tablet he was holding.
“Okay, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but I don’t think this is funny!” he hollered, his voice disappearing into the ether.
Something about those walls was eating up the sound, muffling it.
This would make a good house for an actual murder, he thought grimly.
Well, if anyone thought they were going to have Vix Frost on their chopping block tonight, they were wrong as hell.
A cackle sounded from one of the closed-off rooms to his right, making Vix snap his attention to it. With his eyes narrowing, he pushed down on the door handle until he heard it click and then pushed the door forward quietly.
The cackle came again and Vix froze to the spot for a moment. There, in the middle of what looked to be a small study, he could see a woman on her knees under the big mahogany desk in the center of the room. The lights were a deep, mossy green in that room and the walls were covered with endless volumes of books.
One look at her – well, at what he could see of her – made Vix take back all his annoyed grumblings. She was towards him with her back, her ass up in the air as she seemed to be struggling with something under the desk. The thin beam of a flashlight illuminated her dark hair, but Vix couldn’t make out most of her features.
He was just about to say something when a dark shadow cast over the table. Vix saw a tall man appearing as if out of nothing, or more like a corner of the room that had been out of his view because of the bookshelves before. The being moved towards the table and began to crouch down as well.
When Vix saw the flash of a blade in his hand, he reacted.
With a few fast, long steps, he’d crossed through the room and flung himself in the air. Vix flew right over the table and grabbed the man attempting to kill the owner of that gorgeous behind, who was still under the table.
“Got you!” he roared, tumbling into the fireplace behind the desk.
“The fuck!” a female voice yelped, followed a moment later by the telltale thunk of a head hitting a desk. “Ow!”
Vix wrestled the knife out of the hand of the attacker, but instead of being met with resistance, the bastard did… nothing. In fact, it seemed to have broken into at least three large pieces of solid plastic, all covered by a black drape that clung to Vix.
“Who the fuck are you!?” that female voice asked again as Vix tried to toss the cover off of him.
Even the damn knife wasn’t real. It was made of soft plastic.
“I’m your knight in shining armor,” Vix snorted, tossing the cloth off of him and getting up off the floor.
“Yeah? Because you look like a knight who owes me a new mannequin!” she snorted in response.
He winced a little, feeling a flash of pain jolt through his shoulder.
That’s what you get for flying into freaking chimneys and fireplaces. Leave that side of the job to Nick.
The thought would have made him roll his eyes at any other time, but right now, he was far too busy with staring at the stunning woman in front of him.
She was, in a word, gorgeous. From her curvy 5’5’’ body, to her wild hair and those mesmerizing eyes that stared right into his soul, she was utter perfection. Vix’s mouth gaped open a little and his throat went dry.
She had the kind of hips and thighs a man could never get tired of caressing and grabbing, and plush lips that he could only imagine tasted delicious. The fact that she had this admonishing, half-amused look on her heart-shaped face only dug the hole deeper for her.
With her tan skin and those interesting, expressive eyes, he had to guess that she was maybe of Mediterranean descent, though he really didn’t get very far with his pondering in that regard. All he knew was that he wanted her, every bit of her.
It was probably for the best that the lighting in the room was weird, because if she’d gotten a look at his baby blue eyes turning dark brown at the sight of her, it might no longer be Vix who’d been startled.
“Care to tell me what you think you’re doing?” she asked, cocking a brow at him.
“I thought I was saving you from a mysterious assailant,” Vix said smartly, giving his defeated opponent a quick look. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done just that.”
“Uh-huh,” she responded flatly, with the tiniest roll of her eyes. “Well, thank you, benevolent knight. Now, step off of the rails so I can see if you’ve caused me any irreparable damage, would you?”
Vix shuffled to the side, stepping over thin metal rails that he hadn’t noticed before. When he went to lean against the table, the damn cackling rattled through the room again, making him straighten up.
“Don’t be afraid, brave knight. It’s only the speakers,” the woman said, pointing at hidden loudspeakers in some of the bookshelves.
“Yeah, or a bloodthirsty murderer coming to get you in the dead of night,” Vix muttered.
“Sure, or that,” she allowed with a grin, which made her face light up in the most beautiful way.
Shaking her head, she dropped down on one knee, carefully removing the remnants of the 6’5’’ mannequin from the mechanical contraption that had been moving it. Again, Vix had to thank the odd lighting, because he wouldn’t have enjoyed her seeing how red in the face he was about all of it.
Awkwardly, he stood there, absently wondering whether he’d smashed the tablet during his act of bravery. Instead of going around the desk to check on where he’d tossed it, he remained right there, enjoying the sight of the woman at work.
“Are you going to tell me your name?” he asked finally, starting to feel uncomfortable because of the swarm of butterflies that were fluttering around in his gut.
Since when do Frost bucks get butterflies? he asked himself tersely.
The answer was easy enough, though. Since the first Frost brother had stumbled upon his mate. Now, it seemed like they couldn’t stop having weddings.
The thought of having one with the nameless beauty here didn’t sound like that bad of an idea, though. And Vix had never been that big on weddings.
“You promise to stop breaking my gear if I do?” she asked, not looking up.
“Hey, I still maintain that it was a valiant act of protection and bravery on my part,” Vix snorted.
“Uh-huh,” she murmured, a chuckle in her tone as she stood up and turned to face him. “Lucky for you, valiant knight, we only need to put old Steve here back together and then we’ll be good to go. I’m Samarra Alderley and I bet you’re the blood guy, right?”
I’ll be anything you want me to be, if you ask nicely.
“Vix Frost,” he said, offering his hand in greeting. “And I’m still the local hero, but yeah, I’ve got your blood.”
She grinned and his heart practically beat out of his chest.
This delivery was turn
ing out to be a whole lot more interesting than he’d expected.
Samarra
He’s cute.
The thought was as true as it was unwelcome.
So what if the delivery guy was hot as sin and apparently had a protective streak? Samarra was one day away from launching the biggest project of her life and she had no time for any man drama. No time.
So why did she still keep on sneaking glances at him as they walked back through the house?
They made it to the front door together in semi-awkward silence, when Vix finally broke it.
And that was another thing. Who had a name like Vix? What was that even short for?
The problem was, she really wanted to know. In fact, she was uncomfortably curious about everything about him, in fact.
“That thing’s locked, you know. I don’t know what kind of an operation you’re running here but it’s unsafe to lock doors like that. What if there’s a fire or something?” he said casually, one hand in his pocket.
He didn’t look like a fire could bother him any.
“That’s because you walked in here while the house was in active mode and I was going over what had been done during the day. It works on a timer and usually someone has to deactivate the first sequence from the outside. It’s like that so no one can walk in while the previous group is in the first parts of the house still,” Samarra explained.
She tapped a small hidden panel to the right side of the door and the familiar click of a lock unlocking sounded. Samarra opened the door and gave a sweeping bow to Vix, ushering him out.
“Your safety is guaranteed here in the Haunted House of Salem.”
She made the spookiest voice she could and he cracked a grin. He was awfully cute when he smiled.
Then again, he was the very same when he did most things.
Damn him.
“I feel utterly safe in your hands, as you should in mine,” he said with a wink, his blue gaze lingering on her as he stepped outside.
“Well, aren’t I lucky?” Samarra countered with a sigh, though she could feel a blush creeping up on her.
As the door closed behind them, they walked down the two steps from the porch and Samarra made a beeline for the main control panel, still left outside.
I have to deal with that tomorrow, she thought with a sigh. Bright and early.
They hadn’t gotten as much done that day as Samarra would have liked. The blood being late was only the least of their problems, though the house was mostly coming together now. With any luck, she hoped to have it fully operational when the first ticket-holding guests showed up.
“So what is this whole thing?” Vix asked, motioning to the house. “Some sort of a performance art thing, or what?”
“It’s an interactive experience,” Samarra said, practically quoting her website. “Basically, we take over a location for a period of time and turn it into something awesome. Whether it’s a haunted house, or a vampire’s lair, or a creepy dungeon, we’ve done all sorts of stuff. Or, I guess, I should say I have done all sorts of stuff, now.”
She shrugged with a frown, busying herself with the controls to shut the house off. She’d been making final checks for the night, even though it was nearing midnight and they would have an early start with the rest of her crew the next morning.
Along with showing all the extras where they’d have to be and what they’d have to do, there were also a bunch of details to still iron out. Nothing was completely set yet and that was sort of frustrating.
“You actually make a living doing stuff like this?” Vix asked, with not a little bit of surprise in his tone.
“Let’s say I’m 80% barista and 20% awesome interactive event organizer, okay?” Samarra admitted with a bit of a sigh.
She was grimy, exhausted and ready to keel over where she stood, but her adrenaline was pumping high. Not only from having a devilishly handsome man show up and try to protect her from a threat that wasn’t even there, but also because these events were what made her blood pump harder.
Spending every moment of her free time on planning and organizing those events was her passion and she couldn’t wait to see this one come together. Though, admittedly, it had been that much easier when there’d been someone with her to do that work all the time. Someone she thought had been as passionate about all of it as she was…
Not this again!
“Hey, nothing wrong with working towards making a dream happen.”
Vix sounded almost solemn at that. Samarra looked up, flicking off the last of the distortion lights, only leaving on the big projectors that lit the house from the outside as well as the few ‘normal’ lamps that were still inside.
“Thank you! I’ve always thought that. I mean, even if it doesn’t work out, it’s important to try and make it happen, you know? At least if it’s something you love.”
Vix nodded, a slight smile appearing on his lips. His eyes seemed to track her excited motions closely and she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, or if he really did keep looking at her lips a little too often. It wasn’t a bad thing, though.
“Don’t I know it? Working for yourself is always a bit of a struggle. I guess I’ve been lucky with our family having been in the industry for so long.”
“In the truck driving industry, you mean?” Samarra asked with a quirk of her brow.
She’d be the last one to judge, but seeing real trucking pride on a larger scale was such a rare thing that she wasn’t entirely sure what she was faced with at the moment. Vix shook his head as she stopped fussing with the control board and they both made their way towards the red truck.
“No, I’m the pilot who got your stuff to Massachusetts. Because everyone’s either already off for the holidays or swamped, I had to drive this over myself. I was actually surprised no one was blowing up my phone when the shipment didn’t show up five hours ago like it was supposed to.”
“So you figured you’d come here and hope there was still someone here to accept it?” Samarra queried with a grin as Vix wrestled the back doors open.
He shined his flashlight into the dark depths of the truck. Samarra counted endless drums of fake blood, perfect for what she needed for the several days of haunted house creepiness. They had one whole hallway that needed to be bleeding the entire time, with drains created in the floor to funnel the liquid away.
“Well, I figured if anyone was weird enough to need this stuff, they’d probably wait for it. And if not, then I could poke a few holes in the drum and really show my discontentment by creating a literal bloody mess in the yard. I think I got the better end of the deal here,” Vix said.
His gaze lingered on Samarra for a bit longer than it perhaps should have and she felt her throat get dry and a tingle run down her back. He was definitely flirting with her.
I’m surprised I even recognize what flirting looks like anymore…
Being in a long, dull, and mostly unhappy relationship would do that to a woman, apparently. Samarra shook her shoulders a little, pretending it was from the cold, as Vix hauled himself up in the back of the vehicle and started rolling drums forward. She couldn’t keep herself from checking out his ass as he did the climbing.
He was becoming hotter by the second. And if Samarra was being honest, it was sort of unfair on her that he was both sexy and could hold a conversation. Between getting ready for the biggest event of the season and still sort of nursing a broken heart, she had no time for crushes on cute guys!
Or did she?
With that thought in mind, the two of them worked quickly and efficiently to offload the blood. Vix could crack a joke as easy as Samarra could take one and between the two of them, the work seemed to disappear. It was uncanny, really. The way he could make a chore like that seem fun, even when Samarra was dead-tired. Definitely something that she couldn’t say happened often.
When it was all said and done, the blood drums and containers were stacked up in the middle of the yard, waiting for the morning crew to start ha
uling them in. Samarra and Vix stood in front of the pile, while Samarra signed his delivery sheet.
“You sure you don’t want me to help you get these things inside? What if it rains or something?”
Samarra glanced upwards. The moon was almost full, shining bright in the sky, and there was a full carpet of stars above them. Not a cloud in sight.
She looked at Vix with that trademark arched brow of his and he shrugged his shoulder good-naturedly.
He doesn’t want to help you with the blood, silly. He wants to help you with offloading something completely different, her brain helpfully butted in.
It was a good thing that it was dark outside, because considering how much Samarra had been blushing, Vix might otherwise think that she had some kind of a skin condition. Instead, she was just going through a giggly phase because of him. She didn’t hate it half as much as she really should have.
“What if someone wants to steal it?” Vix asked with a grin, playing off her bemused expression.
“If someone wants to steal a couple of tons of fake blood in Salem on Halloween, I think they have every right to it and I’ve only added to making the town cooler on national news, don’t you think?”
“Maybe,” Vix reluctantly agreed, accepting the clipboard Samarra handed back to him.
Their fingertips brushed together as she was about to let go and Samarra gasped. It was like a bolt of lightning shocked through her, making her stand at attention with her eyes wide. Every nerve ending in her body was at attention, suddenly entirely and completely aware of the man standing in front of her.
His shoulders seemed wider and his bright blue eyes seemed to shine brighter in the ghostly light of the night. And his lips were more inviting and his chest falling and rising heavier than before with each breath… Or maybe that was really happening, because when Samarra could gather her wits a little, she realized that Vix was staring at her much the same as she was at him.
“Thank you,” she muttered breathlessly, unsure whether she was saying that for delivering the blood or simply being there, making her smile and blush and giggle a little.