Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  Shea tossed her hand toward the bedside table to swat the clock into submission. The little black box emitted a sharp, bat-like squeak then went silent.

  Without opening her eyes, she reached across the bed and laid a hand on Leo’s chest. Still asleep. She swore the kid would sleep through an earthquake.

  Sighing, she rolled out of bed to a chorus of squeaky springs, walked the few steps to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Dropping her boxer shorts and tank top on the floor, she set the shower several degrees beyond hot to ease the dull ache in her temples.

  Damn, she wished she could stay in here forever. Let the water wash over her skin, washing away her…what? Her sins?

  To hell with that. She didn’t believe in sin. Only right and wrong. She didn’t steal, she didn’t cheat. She’d never taken another life.

  But she would. To protect Leo.

  Would that be so wrong?

  Sighing, she dropped her head down and let the water soak her head, work some of the tension from her neck. It hurt like a bitch, but she couldn’t afford to call off work. They needed the money, especially if they were going to be on the road for a while. Especially after last night—

  No. She shook her head and reached for the shampoo. She refused to think about last night. Or about what might happen today. She couldn’t change the outcome of one and worrying about the other would make her sloppy. And that could be deadly.

  Leo needed her to be on her toes. She couldn’t bear to let him down more than she already had.

  With a sigh, she raced the hot water heater to the end of her shower then walked back to the bedroom. Wet hair cool against her back, she pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, not bothering with underwear. Just have to take them off when she got to work anyway.

  She hated to do it, but she was going to have to give notice tonight. Harry had been good to her these past four months and she’d been able to put aside some money. Not a lot. But it might be a while before she found a job that paid as well.

  If you find one at all.

  Yeah, probably not something she wanted to think about right now.

  Instead, she dropped to her knees in front of the altar, opened the circle and began her daily devotional. Holding her mother’s lead athame across her palms, Shea lifted it to the sky and bowed her head.

  “Uni, Mother Goddess, give me the strength to fight should I be called on to do so. Menrva, Vessel of all Wisdom, grant me the knowledge I need to defeat our enemies.

  “Great Goddesses, let me not falter in my duty.”

  Please don’t let me get my brother killed.

  With that cheerful thought, she felt eyes on her and turned to find Leo watching her from the bed.

  She dredged up a smile for him. “Hey, bud. Did I wake you?”

  He tilted his head to the side. “You look like Mom.”

  Her mouth dropped open but nothing emerged.

  Those four little words were so sweet and so devastating. Like he’d taken the athame and stuck it in her heart.

  She forced herself to hold the smile, wanting him to continue but almost afraid of what he’d say next. “I’m taking that as a compliment, babe.” She tried to keep her tone light, but it was so hard. They never talked about their parents. It was just too difficult for both of them. “Hungry?”

  Those wide, dark eyes regarded her with…what? Anger? Fear? Despair? She waited for him to say something else. Anything. But after a silent minute, she caught back a sigh.

  “Leo, come here.”

  She opened her arms and he bounced off the bed, throwing his arms around her waist and squeezing tight. She hugged him back just as hard.

  Her heart pounded almost painfully. Goddess bless her, she loved this little boy with all her heart. He was all she had left of family and she was terrified of losing him. Terrified of screwing up and losing him to the monsters that chased them. Of getting herself killed trying to protect him and leaving him alone.

  Without help, how long did they have until the men who’d killed their parents—who’d been so much stronger and had still gotten caught—found them?

  They had to run.

  “I love you, Leo.”

  He squeezed tighter but didn’t say another word, his small body warm against her own.

  Damn that bastard Brown for refusing them. They needed to get the hell out of Reading. Tonight. After one more night of work to get her last check.

  Then they’d go. And maybe…maybe there was something she could do to help them get away.

  “Hey, Leo. You want to help me with a spell?”

  Pulling out of her arms, he looked up at her, eyes bright as he nodded.

  She smiled, trying to look excited. And confident. Yeah, right. “Alright, bud. You sit here for a sec.” She pointed to the space in front of the altar then grabbed her backpack from beside the bed and pulled out their mom’s grimoire.

  She paged past spells to cure warts and heartburn, spells to induce comas and even one titled Love Potion. She’d had a few private laughs over that one.

  But now… There it was, near the back. Concealment Spell.

  Glancing through, it didn’t look that difficult, and she had all of the ingredients they needed on the altar. Of course, nothing ever looked difficult until you were ass-deep in frogs, as her dad used to say.

  Oh, Daddy…

  Shaking off those thoughts, she grabbed what she needed and sat in front of Leo, placing the abalone moon bowl between them.

  “Okay, bud. Let’s do this.”

  In the bottom of the bowl, she placed the bloodstone and sprinkled dried heliotrope over it.

  With the grimoire on her lap, she held out her hands and waited for Leo to place his in hers. She’d been teaching Leo as much as she could about spell casting. Which wasn’t as much as it should have been.

  She’d been a lousy student, which was why she hadn’t attempted this spell before. It took a lot of power and an equal amount of control. And she didn’t have much of either.

  She closed her eyes, knowing Leo would follow her lead.

  “Great Goddess Uni, Mother of all, protector of the Etruscans. We, your children, beseech Your aid.”

  Their hands warmed as power built between them, causing goosebumps to coat her arms. Lowering their hands, she wrapped Leo’s around the edge of the bowl, then did the same with her own, funneling the power into the bowl and the bloodstone.

  “Danger follows us. Evil tracks us. Bless us, Great Goddess, with a veil to hide us from those who seek us and mean us harm. We beg You to answer our plea.”

  The bowl shook beneath their hands, rattling against the floor, making the moonstone dance like a Mexican jumping bean in the bottom.

  Shit, that was so not good. They were drawing too much power. She wouldn’t be able to contain it for much longer.

  Please, Goddess, just long enough to charge the stone.

  “For your aid, we thank you, Uni, Lady of the Sky, the Earth and the Water.”

  Okay, time to release the spell into the stone.

  “Leo, let go of the bowl. Slowly, bud.”

  He did it perfectly, sliding his palms then his fingertips from the lip of the bowl until he was no longer touching. As if he’d been casting for years. He probably had been. Her mom had started her training when she was four.

  The bowl continued to rattle.

  Shit. This is gonna hurt no matter what—

  Sharp pain sliced into her temples right before the power blew her across the room. Pain shot up her spine as her back hit the wall, milliseconds before her head connected.

  Yeah, that was going to leave a mark.

  “Sissy!” Leo scrambled across the floor after her, eyes wide.

  She held up her hands. “I’m okay, bud. I’m fine.” Except…scorch marks covered her hands, making pain shoot up her arms and into her head. Her palms felt like she’d dragged them through a bed of red-hot coals. She dredged up a smile. “You and me together, kinda like Mentos and Diet Pepsi, h
uh?”

  Leo never looked away from her hands, teeth latched into his bottom lip as his dark head tilted to the side. Before she could react, he placed his small hands over her burns. She drew in a sharp breath, steeling herself against the pain—that never came. Instead, she felt heat, not burning red heat but cool white—

  Shit. “No, Leo, don’t—”

  He wrapped his hands around hers, holding on so she couldn’t get away without possibly hurting him, his grip was that tight.

  And then she felt the tingle of Leo’s arus working against her own. The relief was immediate as her burns disappeared. Fear rose close on its heels.

  Great Goddess, please let him be okay. “Leo, let me see your hands.”

  She braced herself for the sight of burns on his small hands. With empathic healing, you took the injury on yourself—

  No burns. His hands were perfectly soft and smooth.

  She took a deep breath. Only six and he healed with no side-effects.

  Such a special little boy.

  “Leo.” She looked straight into his eyes. “How long have you been able to do that?”

  She couldn’t heal without retaining some of the original injury on herself for a certain period of time, depending on the severity.

  He just stared at here, as if he didn’t know the answer to her question. Or he just didn’t want to answer.

  With a sigh, she gathered him onto her lap and held him, until she remembered the spell they’d been trying to work.

  Looking down, she saw the bloodstone at the bottom of the moon bowl. It looked like a charred piece of wood. Her chest contracted like someone had punched her.

  So much for that. Failed again.

  Why her mother had ever thought she was special was beyond her.

  Leo followed her gaze, little shoulders drooping as he caught a glimpse of the stone.

  “It’s okay, bud.” She hugged him tight. “We’ll be okay without it.”

  But she swore she felt those damn frogs biting her ass.

  * * *

  They left the building at seven.

  Gabriel had to hand it to the girl. She’d hidden them well. She’d only screwed up once. But once was all it took.

  He’d called in a favor with the local police and ran down her license plate. The registered name and address were bogus but she’d gotten a parking ticket two months ago on this block.

  He’d been staked out since early afternoon and it’d finally paid off.

  Her apartment was in an older building in center city. It had character but wasn’t rundown. Her neighbors appeared to be young and single, coming and going at all hours. Probably never even realized there was a kid living there.

  He was pretty sure no one saw her or the boy leave the building. In her baggy jeans, grey sweatshirt and red ball cap with her hair tucked under, she looked like every other city kid with a backpack slung over her shoulder. The boy walked at her side, dressed exactly the same, though his hat and sweatshirt were blue.

  From a few blocks behind, his enhanced sight allowed him to track them in the fast-falling dusk. He was careful, but obviously not careful enough.

  She realized she had a tail after five minutes. She didn’t stop or look around, but she stiffened and her feet faltered for two steps. Then she continued on as if nothing had happened. It wrung a reluctant grin out of him.

  He followed them easily for five blocks. Then they turned down an alley off Chestnut Street. And vanished.

  “Fuck.”

  “Sure, buddy, but it’ll cost ya.”

  A glassy-eyed teen stood on the corner. Gabriel would have ignored him but his dad’s ingrained habits kicked in. He pulled a couple bills from his pocket and shoved them at the boy.

  “Eat.” With a small spell, he planted a mental picture of the Chinese restaurant up the street in the kid’s head. “No drugs.”

  Staring at the two twenties in his hand, the kid nodded.

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Gabriel didn’t wait to see if the kid obeyed. He ran into the alley, searching the dark shadows and hidden spaces for any trace of the girl and the kid. And found nothing.

  Well, hell. It’d been a damn long time since anyone had gotten the better of him. That it was a girl… Hell. That just made it worse.

  When the alley dumped him onto Spruce, he stopped, eyes narrowed.

  Where the hell was she headed?

  She wasn’t dressed like a waitress but there were a few restaurants in the area. There were also a couple of funeral homes, one manufacturing operation, a few bars, a few—

  Shit. Shit. He knew why she’d looked familiar.

  She was one of Harry’s girls.

  * * *

  Like much of the rest of the city, The Spyder had seen better days.

  Once the lodge of some benevolent order of animal, the building retained its original stone façade, but the grand arched windows had been boarded over and painted black. Only the decorative wrought-iron grills remained. The front door was arched, as well, and wouldn’t have looked out of place on an English castle—thick-planked and iron-studded.

  Only the Etruscans knew the oak door and iron studs were natural spell repellants.

  A bas-relief border of trees and deer and rabbits cut the building between the second and third floors. If you looked closely enough, you could see the toothy creatures that lurked behind those trees.

  After returning to the girl’s apartment to retrieve his Audi, Gabriel parked the car close to the alley at the back of the building then walked to the front door.

  “Dan, how’s it going?”

  “Hey, Gabe. How’s it hangin’?” Shaved head gleaming, ebony skin shining in the dusk, Dan Ferryman gave him the once-over before letting his gaze slide back to the street. “Not planning on using any of that hardware tonight, are you?”

  “Not unless I need to.”

  Dan’s normally grim face split in a toothy grin, showing the elongated incisors that marked him hereditary versipellis. Harry employed mostly skin-shifters, from bouncers to bartenders to dancers. With their superhuman strength, they gave him an edge on any eteri who might want to pick a fight. “That’s what I like about you, Gabe. You know how to sling the shit. You wanna talk to Harry?”

  “Just here for the show.”

  Dan’s snort could be heard through the thick door.

  Pausing in the hall, Gabriel gave his olfactory sense time to adjust to the smell. How the hell the lucani dealt with it, he’d never understand. Their sense of smell was a hundred times better than his and his was three times better than a regular human’s. The amount of alcohol, cigarettes and sex in the air could be a lethal combination.

  Shaking his head, he stepped into the main room.

  At one time, the club’s public space had been a grand meeting hall with high ceilings, stained glass windows and rich wood paneling fit for an English manor.

  But years of hard living had decayed the interior until it resembled a whore who’d stood on her corner too long.

  Paint peeled from the paneling in rainbow flakes. Faded red velvet curtains covered the gaping holes where the windows had been, dust clinging to the folds like lint in a fat man’s gut.

  Heading for the bar on the left wall, he avoided the tables on the floor and the dozen or so men who watched three dancers gyrating on the catwalk. None was the girl he was looking for.

  He took a deep breath of stale air thick with smoke from substances legal and others not so much.

  “Gabe.” Harry set a shot of tequila in front of him, slim white hands working fast, pale gray eyes never wavering.

  Gabriel downed the alcohol before saying, “I need one of your girls.”

  Harry’s bland features tightened infinitesimally. “Nothing kinky and no marks. A C-note for the first fifteen minutes. Which one?”

  Gabriel let his gaze roam the murky room. “I’ll let you know.”

  He tossed a twenty on the bar for the drink and the info and moved to the ta
ble farthest from the stage. After a few minutes of lazy pole-dancing, the three strippers left, and the girl he’d followed appeared.

  Holy shit.

  Dressed in black leather shorts made for a five-year-old and a couple strips of red leather that barely covered her nipples, she slinked onstage to some music he didn’t recognize. The heavy bass thudded low in his gut and lust grabbed him by the balls as she rubbed her body against the silver pole in the middle of the stage.

  Heat drenched him as she tossed her thick mane of hair over her shoulders and bent backward until it swept the floor. Breasts straining against the straps, she rubbed her crotch against the pole then swung around it.

  And then she began dancing in earnest.

  Holy fucking hell. Gabriel’s mouth dropped open, allowing him to drag in a little more air so his lungs didn’t quit on him.

  How the hell had he not noticed the girl was damn hot last night?

  Oh yeah, hangover.

  Shit, he must have been further gone than he’d thought.

  She wasn’t tall, but she had a natural grace that should have looked out of place in a hole like this. Her hair, a silky brown-black curtain, veiled her face, hinting at secrets. But those flat brown eyes stared straight ahead, making no eye contact with anyone as she gyrated down the catwalk with the lazy stride of a porn star.

  He wanted to watch her eyes but couldn’t tear his gaze from her breasts, jiggling beneath the constraint of leather. Oh yeah, he was a breast man.

  Not that he didn’t appreciate her firm ass. The strip of material between her legs wasn’t wide enough to completely cover the lips of her sex when she bent at the waist and shook her ass at the crowd. The move elicited a few whistles from the men and made Gabriel shift in the hard wooden chair to alleviate the binding pressure of his jeans on his stiffening erection.

  He had the insane, caveman urge to jump onstage, grab her and run.

  At that moment, her gaze locked with his. Shock froze her in mid-move, her mouth—damn, what he could do with that mouth—fell open then closed tight. A second later, she whipped around, hair flying out behind her, and walked off stage.

  Gabriel walked back to the bar and threw five hundred-dollar bills in front of Harry.