I came to a stop beside my little electric blue porsche, and ran a light finger over the side of the door. She was a beauty, one of the few things in my hilarious half-afterlife I cherished. Between my car and my extensive shoe collection, I had everything I needed. Some succubi tried to fill in the gaps of their lives with things normal mortals required to feel complete; a family, a partner, tiny house in suburbia with a white picket fence and barbecues with the neighbors every month. It was pitiful, honestly. Trying to fit a circle into a triangle-cut hole wasn't going to make things easier, even with the best lube.
For the moment, I was simply thankful one of the officers thought it smart enough to drive down my vehicle for when I wanted to leave. Like now.
"Caroline," Sam called again, catching up to me. Moonlight crested over his features, bathing him in a milky light that gave him a delicate glow. Out from the harsh glares of lighting in the precinct, he looked exactly the way all vampires were described in the erotic paranormal books. Handsome, sharp lines made up his face, and his eyes glowed with the hint of something unexplained.
Angling my face slightly to catch his eye, I waited. “Tick tock, Detective. You’re burning precious moonlight, and I feel the need to feed coming on again.”
He frowned. “Parsons and Harton said you had just fed when they found you.”
I gave him a baleful stare behind the oversized shades. “Yes, you’re correct. But after having to answer to your little toddler vamp in there, and resist fucking you on the table at the same time, I’m feeling a little drained.” A delicate pout touched my lips. “Shame, really. Another unlucky human won’t see the sun shine because you had to berate me tonight for your own fun.”
“Berate? I wasn’t—” Sam leaned back on his heels, swearing softly. “Look, I'm sorry.”
And just like that, the mood changed. I laughed, light and free. He was sorry? For what, doing his job? It was typical of him to try and smooth things over with anyone who felt rubbed the wrong way. He had a heart of gold, a knack for wanting to keep everyone happy at all times. It was one of the few mortal weaknesses that carried with him after he turned vampire.
Arching an eyebrow, I flicked up my shades. I crossed my arms across my chest. "General apologies do nothing for me, Coulson. How about being a little more specific?"
"She wasn't supposed to be with me, okay? She's new." Sam flung the words like they were vile in his mouth, yet still he smirked. "She'll transfer within the month, I'm sure."
"Isn't that cute," I teased. "You think she'll make it a month in this place."
"You made it two years."
"I wasn't on payroll." Irritation laced my tone, and I made a face. "That's only permitted for the purebloods of our pretty little world.”
Sam made an aggravated noise in his throat, tilting his head to the ceiling. "That's not my fault."
“Never said it was.” I ran my hands through my silken locks, turning slightly. "You make it sound as if I wanted to be here all day. The whole office get up doesn't suit me well." It wasn't his ruling on who was allowed to run things in our world, that was left to the big wigs of yester-milennium. And I was perfectly okay with that. At first, it had nagged me that they carried a clause of pureblood supers being the only ones allowed to run the fun jobs. But I had found my niche in the world with ease, scored a few payloads that kept me comfortable in my suite, and never looked back. Having an important job like a cop or CEO was something mortals needed to feel important. And I was far, far from anything mortal.
Sam's husky laugh brought me back to our little chat in the parking lot. He shook his head, amusement written in his charming smile. "I doubt there's anything in this world that could look bad on you."
"You may be onto something there, Detective." I slyly tossed back. "Perhaps you should investigate this theory with me back in my bedroom."
The brilliant smile dimmed. He sighed, shifting his weight as he jammed his hands into the pockets of his fresh grey slacks. His next question knocked me out of my element, breaking off the train of subtle teases. "How have you been?"
I stared at him, really narrowed in on him then. Like full-blooded vampires, my senses were heightened to a level far beyond anything mortal. Smells and perceptions were easy to spot, and even easier to guess when you spent ten minutes with a stranger. My added bonus was that, paired with catching every little flick of Sam's eyes as he tried to sneak glances at my body for emotional tips, I could feel him. His aura and energy blew off of him like a fresh summer breeze on a sweltering afternoon. It was that way with everyone, which was how I had no trouble zeroing in on the lustiest jerk sitting at a bar, taking him home, and draining him before he could even finish undressing me.
But this... questions like that were personal. They picked at the wall I liked to keep in place. It wasn't because I was nursing some broken dream, or a victim of something that haunted my past. I just wasn't the kind for show and tell with my life. The only show and tell I enjoyed came from showing my naked body to people in my bed, and telling them to fuck me hard before I let the itch to consume their soul overpower my senses.
I flicked at a stray gnat on my chest, barely registering his intensive stare. "I should be asking you that."
"I asked first."
"Glorious, as you can see." I motioned to my body with a single sweep of an arm, only to roll my eyes. "Nothing says life is great like fucking corpses for a living."
He frowned and came closer, the moonlight bringing his features to sharp clarity. "That's not what I meant."
"Then stop speaking in circles."
"Have your memories returned?"
The words were simple enough, innocent enough in his little sentence. But I knew exactly where he was going with it, and I wanted no part of it. So, I brushed over his question, and played up my own little way to make him squirm.
“Detective Coulson,” I purred, reaching out and lightly running a hand over his chest. “Are you flirting with me?”
His eyes widened, and I watched as he stepped back. His thumb touched the simple wedding band on his finger, tapping it twice as he kept his eyes locked on my face.
“Answer the question,” he said, shoulders tensed.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t have to answer.” I let my gaze slip down to his belt, smiling mischievously. “But, should you find me in violation of something, I believe protocol states you’re to handcuff the offender.” Leaning forward slightly, I watched his body instinctively shift toward me, drawn in by the dark temptation I posed. “Do you remember the last time you cuffed me?”
It was like watching a pot boil over the stove, spilling its contents in a burst of heat. Sam’s eyes hardened, the hint of a growl rumbling in his chest. When he opened his mouth to speak, fangs gleamed like polished pearls in the moonlight. The animal within him called to me, and I beckoned it forward with the faintest touch.
“Caroline,” he growled, the faint trace of his accent playing across his tone. For a moment, all he could do was stare at me, frozen with the need to give into his dark animal, held back only by the gold band on his ring finger. Finally he sighed, shoulders relaxing, a hand pressed against his forehead as frustration shined in his tense stare. “Some things are better left in the past.”
What a shame. For a second, I could have sworn I had woven Sam back into my web, and with so little effort. At least now, knowing what I knew, I could always come back and play with him later. There wasn’t a vampire in this world I couldn’t seduce into my bed, if I took my time with them. Rarely did I care enough to invest the effort. But for Sam…
Feigning hurt, I turned away from him, opening the door to my porsche. “If that’s all, Detective…”
“Yes. I mean, no,” Sam blurted out, cringing. “Please, give me two minutes?”
I didn’t move, hand still on the handle of the door. Sam took the silence as confirmation I wasn’t moving. He walked around to face me, brushing his
legs against the outside of my door.
“I didn’t call you here—” He stopped, adjusting his tone to a softer sound. “I didn’t bring you here for no reason.”
I had already assumed as much. It had been years since we last saw each other, years of silence that became white noise in my daily life. There were only two times in our endless lives he had sought me out, and both times he had wanted something only I could help with.
What can I say? I was good at my job. Hell, I was the best.
“I’m going to ask you again,” he said, closing the distance between us. His eyes slid from side to side, making sure we were the only ones in the parking lot. “Have your memories returned?”
The question was simple enough, again. And like the last time, it felt too personal. I eyed Sam critically, taking note of the tug on his lips, the subtle stubble lining his jaw like a fine fuzz. I could remember many things in life; like the night I had first laid eyes on him. The first night I fed, both in soul and blood. The night I realized I would never fit in anywhere, and how I took that knowledge and made myself into the badass bitch I was today.
"No," I said at last, turning away from him and opening the door to my car. Striking white leather awaited me, perfectly untouched as if the car just rolled off the lot. "I don't go digging in places that don't interest me. Even if they had, I think we can all agree I’m better off without them.”
“You didn’t think so ten years ago.”
“We’re not the same people we were ten years ago, Coulson.” I snapped, flashing fangs between cherry-red lips. “Being immortal only extends to our bodies, not our minds. Certainly not our lives.”
“Fine.” He said, swearing. “Forget I asked. Go on, back to your comfy life taking lives and rotating through houses while someone else cleans up your messes. It never stopped you before, can’t imagine it will do much now.”
“Finally, you see it my way,” I ignored his brush of bitter words, smirking with a tilt of the head. “Now do me a favor, and get your grubby mitts of my car before I break them off at the wrists.”
Sam stepped back in a flash, hands up to show no harm. I slid into the car and had my baby purring beneath my feet, ready to go, when he came up to me, again.
Window down, I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel, little dents forming in the leather as my nails began to rip it apart.
“What now, Detective? Headlight out?”
“No.” His expression was unreadable. “Just one more thing.”
Fine. I’d humor him. It would be the last I’d see of his soft-self for at least another decade. I could tolerate a few more minutes, after all, what was time to an immortal?
“I called you down here to ask about a murder that took place last week.” His lips pressed together tightly, jaw muscle flexing. “It was a vampire, found on the gates of a cemetery site.”
“Don’t you mean in a cemetery site?”
He shook his head. “On a cemetery site. His body was impaled on the top of the spiked gates.”
The visual was gross, but nothing I hadn’t seen in my decade plus of murders. I shrugged, still drumming my fingers on the wheel. “Don’t see how this involves me, Coulson.”
“It does,” he replied, frowning. “Because he was experimented on.”
Now that was interesting. That got my attention. After my discovery and unveiling ten years ago, only one other vampire was ever found to have been experimented on. Last time, someone had been trying to make a vampire-siren hybrid, only the result was a lifeless vamp corpse with scales slathered over her legs and gills on her neck. She had been staked in the chest, which only worked if the vampire was still in transition.
Only two known attempted hybrids. Now a third. And still, I was the only one to survive.
My fingers stopped drumming, and I twisted in my seat. “I’ll bite. What kind of hybrid?”
“Vampire-faerie, from what we could tell. The ears were Fae, but like vamp-siren hybrid, it had been staked while in transition.”
Great. And here I thought my past was happy sitting in the past.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I closed my eyes. “Why is it every time I run into you, nothing good ever happens?” Well… “Except for the time you let me lick—”
“Caroline.”
“Don’t Caroline me,” I snapped back, one move away from breaking his damn hand. “You take me as I am, or you leave me the fuck alone.”
“Alright, alright. Just, hear me out for one more minute.” Sam said, leaning down and slightly into the car. His teal eyes shined like polished steel. “Help me, please.”
I stared pointedly at his ring finger and smirked. “If you insist, I don’t know if your little butterfly at home would be very receptive of the idea, though.”
"Not that kind of help," he scoffed, then shook his head in annoyance. "Partner with me again. Help me figure out who is doing this. Someone is capturing vampires and trying to make hybrids. Haven’t you ever wondered why?”
“For all of two seconds, and then I killed another human and went on with my life. You should do the same.”
“Please, Caroline. This could be your chance to find out who in the hell made you. Why your memories are missing. We could do this together, just like last time.”
I hated how convincing he was, how passionate he became when he dug his heels into the job. It used to be the most wicked turn on, hotter than underground masquerade clubs and BDSM chambers that played with bloodletting.
"I'm not doing it," I growled, shaking my head sharply. "I told you, the last time was the last time. I don’t do detective work. Not now, not ever. I’m not some hot-ass private eye that runs around town solving crimes. I live to create the mystery of the missing college student, not solve it and show everyone where I dumped the mutilated remains after bleeding her dry.”
Sam was silent for a moment. Then, like a fucking bombshell, “They’re looking for you.”
Oh, great. Here we go. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but dared to ask. “Who?”
“Whoever left their calling card at the scene of the murder,” Sam said. He refused to meet my stare. “It has your name on it, with a message.”
“Please, enlighten me,” I boringly replied. “What did the card say?”
Sam pulled a small evidence bag from his pocket, bright red tape wrapped around one end. He held the bag out to me, stone-faced. “See for yourself.”
Sighing, I took the bag from his hands. The card inside looked ordinary enough, almost like a mini tarot card. A masquerade mask on one side, a figure on the other. Beneath it, written in red, were words that I hadn’t seen or heard in nearly a decade.
Just like that, the humor and snark wiped clean off my face. I fucked around about a lot of things, but this? This shook me hard enough to nearly give me a heartbeat. Coming from a heartless succubus-vampire hybrid, that said a lot.
I stared at Sam with wide, unblinking eyes. “Who knows about this?”
“As of right now, Eliza and I.” Sam sounded as unsettled as I felt. “Caroline, you know I have to ask. Has anyone, anyone seen—”
“No.”
“Then how do they know about—”
“I don’t fucking know,” I said, voice shaking slightly. Fuck, I had to get my shit together or I was going to lose it. And right now, the last thing I could afford was a blackout where my monster fed uncontrollably off everything in reach for hours. “I swear to Hell, if you’re fucking with me for some sick joke—”
Sam’s expression paled, and he looked at me like I was insane. “I got to the scene after a dozen other officers. Eliza bagged it and waited for me to show it. This isn’t a joke, Caroline. Someone is watching you, and I can guarantee it isn’t because they think you’re a pretty succu-vamp.”
I took deep, steady breaths. I didn’t need to breathe, it was purely a learned habit to look normal among my prey. Right now, it was the only thing keeping me from ripping my precious car to pieces in a fit of paranoi
d rage. I had made it ten years without so much as a hint of my mysterious past, and now it was here, leaving me notes at crime scenes written in blood and signed on tiny tarot cards. Just what in the fuck was going on?
“Caroline?”
I snapped my attention to Sam, eyes narrowed to thin slits. Of course, revisiting the past came with the person who was tied to it the most. Which meant, if there was some sick fuck out there trying to reach me or stalk me or whatever, I would be seeing a lot more of Sam Coulson in the immediate future.
So much for a normal immortal life of blood and souls. For now, I didn’t want to think about it. My life was good, hell my life was great. I wasn’t about to let some random death make my life turn into some crime-drama sprinkled in with a little romance.
I took the time to flick on my sunglasses and slip into my car, revving the engine under my feet. “Hope you catch the beast,” I said, staring straight ahead. At the window, Sam went silent, hands slipping off the car door, leaving small smudges behind on the paint. “Go home to your little trophy wife. I’m sure she misses you terribly.” It purred to life like a sated jungle cat, and moved just as fast as I slid out of the parking lot without a single look back. No amount of begging or pleading would get me into a detective job, not even if death came for me himself and played ball.
But the whole ride home, all I could think about was the words written on that little card. How they wrapped around my thoughts until it was all I could hear echoing in my mind. Trying to say them out loud was impossible. They burned like holy water in my mouth, coating everything in a layer of film I couldn’t swallow away. They were words I had uttered ten years ago, with only Sam to keep me company as I uncovered just how much of a monster I truly was.
Nella morte viviamo.
In death we live.
I AM A CREATURE of habit. Like all creatures of habit, I don’t like to be kept from my favorite things.
Dark Temptations Page 2