Sundown Inc.: She Who Dares

by Cat Marsters

  I reached for his fly again but didn’t get that far. He pressed my hands above my head and put his mouth to my breast again and I decided I wasn’t so bothered about his cock if this was what he really wanted to do. Fine by me. I could let him suckle me for hours.

  He held my wrists with one hand and slid the other down my body, flicking open my pants with annoying ease. I was naked beneath them and he groaned softly as his fingers found my bare skin.

  I’d shaved my pussy as an Egyptian concubine. It never grew back. Hell, it saves on waxing.

  I shivered as his fingertips found my labia and stroked gently, but I didn’t want gentle. I wanted hot and hard and endless, and I wanted it now. I thrust my hips against him, and his finger slipped inside my folds, nudged my clit. A flood of wetness spread over both of us as he stroked me.

  “Harder,” I whispered, and he slipped a finger inside me as his thumb stroked my clit. I stifled a gasp, then thought what the hell, and moaned.

  “You like that?” Dare asked around my nipple.

  “Yes.”

  “Want another finger?”

  “Yes.”

  He obliged -- good boy -- by slipping another finger inside my slippery cunt and rubbing me from the inside as well as out. My breath quickened. I looked down at the blond head on my chest, my nipple vanishing between succulent wet lips, and felt a tremor run through my pussy.

  “That’s it,” Dare murmured, licking my nipple with long, hot strokes. He added a third finger to my cunt without even asking, and I moaned. “Gods, you feel good.”

  I was beyond words now. I made a sort of affirmative grunt and Dare gave a soft chuckle as he swapped one nipple for the other. The cool night air whispered against my wet, bare breast, making me shudder delightfully. Dare closed his hot dark mouth over my tight, aching flesh and drew a cry from me.

  “More!”

  “As my lady commands.”

  His fingers curved inside me, hitting a sweet spot, thrusting faster. I spread my legs wide and thrust back against him, against his hand which was soaked with my juices, and bucked against his fingers which still held my wrists above my head.

  “You taste so good,” he murmured. “I can’t wait to be inside you.”

  “Then don’t,” I panted.

  Another soft chuckle. It vibrated through my breast, making me shiver and moan against the wall.

  “I want to see you come first,” he said, his eyes meeting mine although his mouth never left my breast. “I want to feel it. Want to feel your cunt tightening around my hand. I want to taste it, Masika. When I’m done like this I’m going to lick your pussy until you scream.”

  I was nearly there. Ten seconds more and I’d be screaming as much as he wanted.

  “And then I’m going to fuck you. Over and over, your pussy is so tight, it’s going to be so good…”

  “Going to be?” I choked, and then came so hard I heard bells. And a delicious vibration at my waist. Hey, he was good.

  No, wait. That was my phone.

  Dare raised his head, his lips red and wet, and looked at me with unfocused eyes as the tune rattled on.

  “Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”

  I licked my lips and pulled my phone from its holster on my belt. I didn’t answer him. My brain wasn’t working well enough to defend my choice of ring tones. Instead I flipped open the phone and mumbled, “Yeah?”

  “Mas. Where the fuck are you?”

  Coming my brains out in Westminster. I swallowed and tried to remember why the voice on the other end of the phone sounded so familiar. Oh yeah. He was my boss.

  “I -- Johann. Johann?”

  “Yes. It’s me. As you well know because my name appears on your phone screen when I call you.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Miracles of technology, eh?”

  Johann made a growling noise. He’s human -- well, at least officially he is. Magda and I have a bet going that he’s really the spawn of Satan. He’s our boss and the proprietor of Sundown, Inc., a detective firm that only operates within the law about ten percent of the time. In our defense, though, that’s because ninety percent of our cases exist outside of what officially exists. Hard to police vampires and dark magi when you don’t believe in them. We’re known throughout the country -- and beyond too, we’ve had calls from Europe and America -- as the firm of choice when dealing with the paranormal.

  I’ve been with Sundown since the start. Two hundred years ago. Johann is just the latest in charge, although I kinda like him.

  “You were supposed to be in here half an hour ago.”

  “Was I?” I looked at my watch. It was getting pretty late for office work, and I felt a pang of guilt for keeping the human team waiting. Well, not just the human team. It was only vampires who needed to work at night. Most of the staff went home at five, like normal people.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you tonight, Mas? You drain some stoner or something?”

  I couldn’t help my eyes twitching down at that point. Just couldn’t help it. Yep, there was something stone-like there in Dare’s leathers.

  Something really big and stone-like.

  “I’m all right,” I said. “Had a spot of trouble at Willie’s.”

  “Look, fuck Willie. I left you a message at home to meet us here at nine.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Well, look, I have an excuse for missing that one. Some kid broke into my house and tried to make a coat-rack out of me.”

  “I don’t care,” Johann said, but some of the fire had left his voice.

  Dare was watching me carefully.

  “You okay?” Johann asked me.

  “I’m a vampire, Johann, of course I’m okay.” As I spoke I zipped up my pants and reached for my leather halter, which had ended up on the cobblestones. Dare was leaning back against the stoop now, looking rather pissed off. Unfairly, it suited him. His arms were folded over his beautiful chest, affording me a pretty decent view of his perfectly formed abs. I’m a sucker for great abs.

  “Well. Listen. Got something really important for you. Big case. Big bucks.”

  “Because money is such a concern of mine.”

  “Not all of us are lucky enough to have had twenty-three centuries to accumulate wealth, Mas,” Johann said sourly.

  “It’s just wise investing. Anyone could see the Internet was going to make a fortune.”

  “I don’t care about the fucking Internet. I’ve got a vamp for you to kill.”

  “Is that so?” I finished fastening my halter one handed, which wasn’t easy, but Dare didn’t seem to be up for helping me.

  “Yes. And I need you here now. Tomorrow’s the full moon and my secretary has left her one-year-old with a babysitter.”

  I winced at the image that gave me. “Okay, all right, I’m going.”

  I snapped the phone shut and tucked it back in its holster, still very aware of the weight of Dare’s eyes on me.

  “I have to go,” I told him. He stayed utterly still, but something in his face darkened.

  “What could possibly be more important than this?”

  “Than fucking a stranger I’ve never met before? You’d be surprised.” I turned to go, and he caught my wrist.

  For an eternity the memory seared through me of someone else doing the same, someone who had changed my life forever. By ending it.

  Dark brown eyes, a heavy brow, an intense power so vivid it made me scream…

  Dare saw my face and abruptly let go.

  “Two thousand years and you still work,” he said.

  “Custom leather tailoring isn’t cheap.” It wasn’t my wittiest comeback, but I was shaken.

  “So you’re just going to go?”

  “Looks like.” I strode away from him, out of the courtyard.

  “I’ll see you again,” Dare called after me, and I waved a hand, quite sure he hadn’t meant that as a question.

  Chapter Three

  Sundown has its offices in Marylebone, and I jogged all the way there. Doesn’t hu
rt to practice running in heels. Well, actually it does, but it is handy.

  Magda was waiting for me as I let myself in. She rolled her eyes and tapped her watch. I rolled my eyes right back.

  “Yo, bitch.”

  “Hey, fang-face. Did I tell you Lucy is teething?”

  “Look, I’m sorry, okay? If she’s bitten the babysitter I’ll mind-bend her for you.”

  “Don’t think it works on babies.”

  “Haha.”

  In case you hadn’t guessed, Magda is a werewolf. She can control her beast pretty well and only has to change on the night of the full moon, but her kids have extremely unpredictable cycles. Needless to say, she didn’t breastfeed.

  “So who is he?” Magda asked as we went up the stairs to Johann’s office.

  “Who?”

  She rolled her eyes, and flicked her finger at the rip in my halter. Dammit.

  “Mas, what am I?”

  “A pain in the neck. Literally, if you don’t stop annoying me,” I added.

  “I can smell him on you.”

  “That’s kind of disgusting.”

  “You drink blood and you think I’m disgusting. Mas. I’m your friend. Tell me who you’ve been fucking!”

  Of course, Johann chose that moment to appear in his doorway. He raised his eyebrows at us.

  “Thought you said it was the other kind of impaling,” he said, and if I could have blushed, I would have.

  “Can we get on with this? I don’t want Magda’s babysitter suing us.”

  “Suing you,” Johann said, taking a seat in his swivel chair. “You’re the one who made her late.”

  “Does she have to be here?”

  “Yes. It’s her job.”

  Sometimes Johann could be really old-fashioned. And I should know.

  Magda swung into one of the other chairs with lupine grace and grabbed the keyboard to herself, delicate fingers flying over it. Magda is quite tiny, with shiny dark hair, and she looks completely harmless in her cute suit and her pearls. But I’ve seen her rip out someone’s intestines for trying to attack her and her kids. Werewolves are not civilized creatures.

  “Case falls to you, Mas,” Johann said. “The client was quite insistent we get it done soon.”

  I frowned. “Who is the client?”

  “Don’t know,” Magda said. “Whoever it is isn’t in the city. Case was brought to us by a Renfield. Living in a hotel, can’t trace the payment for it.”

  I nodded in understanding. A Renfield was a Master vampire’s devoted servant. And I mean totally devoted -- these guys had no minds of their own. The Master could communicate with his or her Renfield telepathically, without needing to be even remotely physically close.

  “Okay,” I said. “So who’s the mark?”

  Magda swung the flat screen monitor to face me, and for maybe the third or fourth time since I woke up dead, I was speechless.

  “Currently goes by the name of Sekani,” Johann said, as I stared at the image of the man who’d been sucking on my nipples about twenty minutes ago. “Real name Darien, known to friends and flunkies as --”

  “Dare,” I said, my voice hoarse.

  “You know him?”

  I swallowed. “We’ve met.”

  “Conflict of interest?”

  I stared at him. Damn, he even photographed well. He wore a business suit, complete with tie. His body was turned away from me as he opened a door, but he was looking back over his shoulder, eyes meeting the camera dead on. Blue eyes, deep and dreadful, full of cruelty and knowledge. He was old; as old as me, maybe.

  “Hello? Earth to Mas? Come in, Mas? Bloody hell, you looked like I’d just offered you a gallon of fresh blood.”

  I smiled tightly. “I haven’t fed tonight,” I told him, and watched him go a little paler.

  “Mas, can you do it?” Magda asked me. Her pale eyes were watching me carefully.

  I nodded, because the truth was that I could. I just didn’t know if I would.

  Chapter Four

  I went home, which is a warehouse that looks more or less deserted from the outside. Inside it’s not what you might call cozy, but it has electricity and soft furnishings and a basement bedroom where no light ever penetrates. I’m old enough that I can walk about during the day if I stay out of full sunlight, but it’s damn tiring. Vampires need to sleep too, you know.

  I was thinking about Dare, and not just his incredible hotness. I was trying to figure out who the hell would be trying to kill him. A Master vampire, that much we knew. Surely there couldn’t be many Masters older than Dare?

  I wondered if he was a Master himself. And then I wondered, if he was, whose Childe he’d been.

  An awful thought occurred to me. What if it was Dare’s Master who had commissioned me? A Master had absolute power over every vampire he or she created -- except for those vampires who were born the Master’s Childer. A strong, almost parental bond between the sire and the new vampire. Only the Childe of a Master could become a Master himself. A Master couldn’t hurt his own Childer -- because a Childe is the only vampire strong enough to overthrow a Master. It’s a bond of trust.

  Usually, anyway.

  What if Dare’s Master, unable to do the deed himself, had commissioned me to kill him?

  The idea made my head hurt. I wasn’t born a Childe, so I’d never known the love of a Master. My own Master hadn’t seemed to like me at all. But still, for a Master to want his Childe dead was like a mother hiring someone to shoot her kids. It was just wrong.

  I needed some time to think. Or more accurately, to not think.

  I snagged some O Neg from the fridge -- rare treat, they don’t throw this stuff away often, you know -- and flopped in front of the TV to see what dreck was on in the middle of the night.

  And then I heard a noise.

  Some of the old stories are true. The ones about holy objects -- to which I bear witness -- and stakes, and fire, and the ones about movement, sight, hearing. The garlic thing is a load of bollocks though. I love garlic. Especially on Italian food.

  And I mean the kind that you eat, not the human kind… although that’s nice, too.

  Anyway. A noise. A small one, almost undetectable. I tuned out the noise of the TV and listened again. Sweet Bast, two in one day? I really need a new alarm system.

  Now I could hear him, and I was sure it was a him, unless it was a really big woman. He moved almost soundlessly, but when I thought hard I could hear the air moving around him.

  I breathed in, and there it was. Vampire.

  I frowned, and took another breath.

  Then I vaulted over the back of the sofa in a movement so fast I couldn’t even see myself, and had him pinned against the industrial steel kitchen worktops before I’d even thought about it. A crossbow came to hand, and I had the tip of the bolt pressed against his chest.

  “Hey, lover,” I said, and Dare gave me a crooked smile as I ripped his shades away. His eyes were the color of the desert sky. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?”

  “Bet you say that to all the guys.”

  “Just the ones who’ve broken in.” Without realizing it my hand had crept to his throat, and I felt his pulse beating there. Despite what the movies say, we’re not really dead -- our hearts beat, our blood flows, our lungs work. Paleness comes from never seeing the sun, not from death. Although a vamp who hasn’t fed in a while will be a bit chilly to the touch.

  Not Dare. He was hot. His skin burned feverish. His pulse throbbed against my palm. His gaze burned into me. He was still shirtless, and I felt him through my clothes. The crossbow faltered.

  “What do you want?”

  He shifted, only a small movement, but it brought our hips into alignment, and I felt exactly what he wanted. Felt it against my groin. Felt it swell as I brushed against it.

  “You ran off,” he whispered, his voice like hot silk against my skin, “and we never finished what we started.”

  I didn’t mean to shiver, but his vo
ice really was good. It was the closest to sex I’d ever heard in a voice. I wondered if Dare had ever made a woman come just by talking to her.

  I’d be willing to find out.

  “I had work to do,” I said, and my voice came out all breathy. “How did you find me?”

  “I followed you.”

  I started to say that was impossible, but I’d been really pretty preoccupied tonight. Thoughts of the man who’d made me come my brains out in a public place, thoughts of how to kill him.

  His eyes bored into mine, and I knew he knew. After all, he’d followed me to Sundown’s offices.

  “How much?” he whispered.

  “Excuse me?”

  He broke into a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “My head,” he said. “How much is she paying for it?”

  “You know who it is?”

  “I’ve known for two thousand years.”

  Well, there was a conversation stopper. I couldn’t think of anything to say, and Dare took advantage of this by tilting his head, just a little, and brushing his lips over mine.

  Well, whatever I might have been planning on doing I completely forgot about when he did that. His lips touched mine and my brain just melted. I attacked him, fangs out, feeding on his mouth, drinking in his taste. My canine nipped his tongue, drew blood, and as the rich fullness of it flooded my mouth I felt my nipples contract, my pussy dampen, my beast rise. Told you blood makes me horny.

  Dare’s hands were on my arms, gripping tight, his fingers digging into the scar tissue on my right side. It didn’t hurt. It felt good. It felt right. The crossbow clattered to the floor, forgotten.

  We kissed so hard, so fierce, and it felt damn good. Humans don’t kiss like this, and vampires are usually too full of agenda to kiss with abandon. Dare kissed like most vampires feed; as if it was sustaining him, as if it might be his last.

  My top was off again before I really thought about it, and my bare breasts pressed deliciously against his chest. Someone moaned, and I think it was me.