by Ebony Olson
The rooftop party was in full swing when I exited the elevator. My name was at the door like Bay promised. I slipped out of my jacket at the coat check, keeping his passport wallet in hand, and made my way into the thick of the party. People were dancing to the jazz music, others socialized by the bar. The area by the pool was relatively quiet, so I made my way there and stood waiting for Bay to find me. I checked my watch; the window for the meet closed in five minutes.
I closed my eyes, reopened them, and focused on recognizing predators. When I first learned to do this, it would instantly alert all of them to my presence, but with Alexander's training, I'd learned to do it without most of them even knowing. There were several predators here, a handful of them Bay's kind, which was exactly the reason I avoided the modern nightclubs. The crowd parted, and Bay approached me from the bar direction, his lips pulling slightly up in a smile. His expensive suit fit in a lot better at this party.
“I was starting to think you wouldn't make it.” He held out his hand, and I placed the passport wallet in it. His eyebrows lifted as if that's not what he expected, but he opened the wallet, checked the license and passport, then pocketed them before once again putting his hand out to me.
I raised a brow. “I believe this is where you hand me my payment and we bid each other farewell, Bay.”
Bay nodded but moved no further. When I stood to look at him, he exhaled in frustration and scooped my hand up in his, leading me to the dance floor. He pulled me into him and started dancing. I went rigid, from being held so firmly against him, and because I'd also never danced with a guy like this before.
“Relax, I'll lead. I promise not to tread on your pretty shoes.” Bay smiled, and it hit me how good looking he was. I closed my eyes and growled at myself. “I've angered you?”
“You're trying to charm me.” I kept my voice low and bitter. “I don't understand, considering how angry it made you when I touched you only two days ago.”
Bay's smile died, his face returning to his emotionless mask. “We are at a party, Miss Michaels. Your money is in my coat. When we have finished this dance, you will escort me out, and I will give you your payment in the elevator on the way to the lobby.”
I tensed in his hands at the idea of being alone in an elevator with him. I shook my head and stepped back. “Screw the money.”
Bay's eyes focused on mine with curiosity. I stepped away from him and turned to find the exit. Nothing was worth the risk of being alone with him. I'd never done this for the money anyway. I could feel Bay following me through the crowd. I was examining all my options for escape when a tipsy brunette stepped into my path, a predator smiling charmingly at her side as he led her to the exit.
“God, I'm so sorry.” She laughed as she turned to apologize for running into me.
I had a split second to recognize Heather, my best friend from school, before her eyes fell on me. Heather's eyes went wide with fear. “Spec?”
I looked at the predator next to her, keeping my face controlled and serene. He was focused elsewhere and missed her reaction. “He's a predator, Heather. Leave with him, and you may never make it home again.” With Bay standing at my back stopping my retreat, I breathed out entirely, becoming incorporeal. I fled through the crowd for the exit.
“Spec?” I heard Heather's voice call again weakly.
Bay
I was shocked that Spectra would choose to refuse payment rather than enter a confined space with me, but I shouldn't have been. I may not have bedded a woman in centuries, but I used my charm on humans daily in my business, so I should have known when my charm failed to work on her that she would run. All my confusion went out the window when I saw the brunette's big brown eyes widen in horror, the blood draining from her face enough to still look shock pale despite her fake tan and heavy makeup.
I just heard Spectra warn her about the predator before she turned and vanished into the crowd. I looked for her but lost her amongst the milling bodies, her aura already very faint. The eyes of the alarmed brunette locked with mine in the absence of Spectra.
“Are you well? You look like you've seen a ghost.” I asked half-heartedly while I searched for Spectra moving through the crowd.
“I did,” she whispered, tears starting to run down her cheeks. That response got my attention. “She warned me...” She looked over her shoulder at the man she was with, busy talking to another of his kind and a drunk blond human. The scared brunette quickly moved into the crowd away from the danger. I held her elbow to stop her tripping in her hasty retreat.
“Possibly you've drunk too much.” I frowned. Spectra was real. I touched her, and she definitely wasn't a ghost, so this woman's reaction was fascinating. “You obviously haven't seen your friend in some time...”
“Seven years,” the brunette sobbed. “She died seven years ago. We used to be so close; it tore our whole circle of friends apart when it happened. Her boyfriend, Jeff, he didn't mean to hurt her, he couldn't have known she'd react badly to what he gave her. After what happened to her sister and her mother, it almost seemed as if the family was cursed, and Spec was fated to die young too.”
I swallowed, gaining a little insight into why Spectra resided at a convent. She must be an orphan. “How long was she dead for?” I think I understood why Spectra could identify predators, why she stood one with foot in the Nachtwelt.
The brunette looked at me, exasperated, like I hadn't been listening. “We buried her seven years ago.”
I stood straight, hearing the honesty in this woman's words. I turned and looked towards the exit. Spectra was there, waiting for her jacket to be given to her. I walked away from the distressed woman and towards my prey. There are very few ways someone comes back from the dead and stays human. If her friends buried someone, it wasn't the woman he was doing business with. There was no way Spectra ever went into a grave, which meant she never died completely and went into hiding for a reason, or she was something new.
I grabbed her elbow to stop her retreat while handing over the ticket to collect my own jacket. Spectra turned her pale eyes toward me, and whatever she saw in mine caused her to swallow hard. She closed her eyes and looked away as I took my jacket and led her to the elevator.
We waited quietly for the elevator to arrive. When it did, I stepped us both inside, hit the button for the basement, and turned to block her view of the control panel. I took out the envelope containing the rest of her payment and held it out to her. “Your payment. Thank you for your professionalism, Miss Michaels.”
She took the envelope hesitantly and slipped it into her jacket pocket without checking it. Her anxiety was filling the elevator. I stepped towards her and touched her cheek. Spectra's blue eyes flashed up to mine, surprise swimming like a torrent behind them.
I smiled down at her. “I want you to stay the night with me, Spectra.” I intended to take her with me the moment I saw her. No one had stirred my desire in centuries, and suddenly there was this woman. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.
Her eyes hardened and flashed fiercely. “I'm not food.”
“I've already eaten tonight. I want you in the biblical sense. Stay with me tonight, and tomorrow morning you can walk away from me. I'll never seek you out again.”
I saw the answer in her eyes before she even opened her mouth. She was not the sort to be ruled by desire. I took her face in my hands, seeing my chance at knowing pleasure again quickly disappearing. I kissed her passionately and felt the desire flood my system. My cock stirred the moment I saw her upstairs, but now, it became full and hard and pulsed with the ache of centuries of disuse.
I ran my tongue over my teeth, slicing my tongue open before thrusting it into her mouth. She wasn't pushing me away, and I could feel the temptation radiating off her as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. But, when I pulled back to look in her eyes, the fear within her overcame her curious nature. She shook her head and stepped away to alight the elevator but paused when
she saw we were in the car park.
I stepped forward to stop the doors from shutting and put a hand on her lower back to encourage her forward.
“What about the word 'no' do you not understand?” she growled, giving me a look full of rage, refusing to budge.
I kept my face neutral and put enough of my strength behind my hand to let her know getting off the elevator was not an option, and it wasn't now. I couldn't leave her defenseless in a place like this. She stepped off the elevator and turned, putting her back to the wall immediately outside.
“No, I'm not staying with you. No, I'm not having sex with you. No, I'm not feeding you. No, I will not ever see you again. Our business is done, Mr. Ryder. Our agreement was that you would forget my name, forget me...”
Spectra swayed a little, and she put a hand to her head. I stood waiting, guilt gnawing at my consciousness as she put her hand on the wall and her knees started to weaken beneath her.
“What?” She stumbled.
I caught her and lifted her into my arms effortlessly. Her head rolled into my chest, unconscious, as I started walking to my car.
CHAPTER THREE
Spectra
My eyes fluttered open, and I cringed internally, waiting for the pain of breathing to hit, but it didn't. I relaxed and sat up to take in my surroundings. I lay on a big timber bed in a luxuriously designed bedroom, all but my jacket and shoes still in place. There were four doors leaving the room and two large windows with the heavy drapes closed. I moved to the windows, pulling the curtain back enough to peer outside. It was still dark, too dark to still be in the city though, and I was at least two to three stories off the ground.
I looked back around the room for my jacket. My shoes were placed neatly in front of a chair. My jacket was laid neatly across the back of it. I felt inside the pockets, the envelope with the money still bulging on one side; the other held my phone. I pulled it out, unlocked it, and called Alexander. The phone beeped at me and the call dropped.
“No, no, no!” I whispered as I realized there was no signal. I moved around the room, pausing and walking to try and find a place with enough signal strength to call. Eventually, I gave up and sent Alexander a message, hoping if the signal picked up that he would get it. I didn't know what happened, so I was honest.
I don't know what happened. I drank nothing. I passed out. I don't know where I am. I can't call anyone, so hoping this message will get out as soon as I find a signal.
Once I pressed send, I closed the phone and started looking for a way out. I considered sneaking around the house and decided that I would just hold my head high and walk out. I slipped into my shoes and jacket and opened the first door. Wardrobe. I closed the door and went to the next one. Bathroom. I moved to the two doors on the opposite side of the room, and the first led out to a landing and stairs leading down two flights. I stepped out and started across the timber floor to the stairs, walking on my toes to stop the heel from clacking. I stopped at the door directly at the top of the stairs and heard a deep voice talking inside. Not wanting to risk being caught from behind, I started the descent.
I was halfway to the first-floor landing when a woman's ear-piercing scream froze me where I stood. Seconds later, a man's malicious laugh echoed up from the room at the foot of the stairs where the door was open. A second man's sympathetic voice filtered through.
“Scream all you want, honey. No one is going to hear you here.”
The woman sobbed loudly before a ripping sound reached me and she screamed a bone-chilling scream this time. I slipped out of my shoes, leaving them behind on the stairs, breathed out entirely, and descended to the first-floor landing. I passed by the door slowly and dared to look in. I was relieved to see Bay wasn't one of the men in the room. One was one of his kind, but the other was another sort of predator. The woman screaming was on all fours on the floor, and I understood the noises I'd heard now. She was halfway through her first change.
Her animal eyes locked on me and she opened her mouth to alert those with her, but her body chose that moment to take the next step. Her scream pierced my ears, and I moved quickly to the stairs and floated down to the ground floor and out the front door. I ran across the front lawn to the driveway and just made the tree line when the front door flew open and Bay rushed out, looking around. He looked across the lawn and seemed to see exactly where I was despite me knowing he couldn't see me. Not when I turned incorporeal.
I heard a noise behind me and turned to see two lionesses approaching me cautiously. I swallowed hard. While most beings couldn't see me when incorporeal, animals were different. So, when a Changeur de Corps, a predator of flesh who could change into animal form, saw me with their animal eyes, they saw through me but knew I was there.
“Spectra, stay still!” Bay yelled from where he stood on the front porch.
I looked back to where Bay was watching the lionesses stalk towards the tree I stood behind. I resisted taking a deep breath and ran for the road. The animals turned their heads to follow my escape but didn't follow. Most animals didn't bother with ghosts, and that's what they would have taken me for. I made it to the road, and my phone started ringing. I inhaled deeply, returning to physical form, and pulled my phone out to answer it.
“Spectra, where are you?” Alexander's panicked voice came across the line.
“I don't know. Bay Ryder's place I think. He's a predator master.” I looked up the road and wondered where the closest town was.
“Yes, amongst other things. Are you away from him?”
“I just made it to the road, but he was close behind me.”
“I'll be there in a minute.” Alexander hung up and I stared at my phone, wondering how he was getting here that quickly.
A moment later, Alexander stepped out of nowhere to stand in front of me. He was just like the other night, with only his jeans on, and I knew my message woke him. He stood taller than I was used to seeing him and his power swirled around him like a tornado as he came towards me.
I hesitated moving toward him until his eyes went over my head and filled with rage. “We had an agreement.” He scowled as he put his arm around me. Alexander's power burned across my skin, and I gritted my teeth to stop from crying out.
I turned and saw Bay standing just a few meters from me on the road. “She is unharmed. I didn't take her to rouse your anger.”
“Then what is she doing here?” Alexander put me behind him, his power swirling angrily around him.
“I kissed her,” Bay sighed. “I'm attracted to her. It has been centuries since I kissed someone. I accidentally cut myself, and she ingested my blood. I couldn't leave her there to the mercy of other predators.”
Alexander looked shocked as his eyes turned to me for confirmation. I looked away, not willing to meet his eyes. “Oh, Spec!” Alexander sighed, pulling me into him. “You must have been terrified. I'm sorry.” Alexander turned his eyes towards Bay. “You should have brought her to me. Your business is done with her now, so stay away from her.” Alexander pulled me tight to him, and I felt his power sear along my skin. I closed my eyes and resisted screaming at the feel of being stretched apart before I snapped back together like an elastic band.
I opened my eyes to find me standing pressed to Alexander’s bare chest in his lounge room. He didn't release me for a long moment, which was good because my legs weren't holding me up.
When he finally did, it seemed to require all his effort. “You're in trouble, Spec. Bay Ryder hasn't met a woman who roused his interest in centuries. He's attracted to you. My telling him to stay away isn't going to have much effect.”
“My telling him to stay away didn't have much effect either.” I frowned and shrugged out of the jacket. “I'm sorry, Alexander. I didn't mean for this to happen.”
Alexander took my hand in his and led me to his bedroom. “It's late, Spec. Let's get some sleep, unless you'd rather stay up and watch that porn movie in your bag?”
I smi
led. “It's for a client.” I watched Alexander drop his jeans and climb into his bed while I unzipped my dress and stripped. I walked to his chest of drawers and opened the shirt drawer, pulling out one of his t-shirts to sleep in. “Plus, I don't think nuns in habits are your thing.”
I climbed into bed, and he pulled me against him. “Sex with you is my thing, Spec.”
I smiled as his lips dropped a kiss across my collarbone. “As I hear it, sex in general is your thing, Alex.”
Alex rolled to reach the light switch, but it put him on top of me at the same time. He used his knee to nudge my thighs apart as he turned off the light. In the dark, his face came back to mine. “Say yes, Spec. It's been months.”
I grabbed the hem of the shirt I'd just put on and pulled it up my body and over my head, Alexander lifting his body enough to let the material pass before pressing against me. His kiss was gentle, kissing me thoroughly till I was gasping for breath. His mouth ventured down my throat, across my collarbones, and further to seize my nipple. I gasped at the feel of his tongue flicking across my sensitive areola. I missed Alexander. I loved him, but he'd been the one to put the brakes on, and now I kept the distance to protect my heart.
My fingers twined in Alexander's thick head of hair as he kissed over my stomach and disappeared between my legs. My back bowed, and I bit my lip at the way he made butterflies take flight in my stomach. As he kissed his way back up my abdomen, I caught a glimpse of lightening sky through the highlight window above his bed. He kissed up my exposed throat and gently used his hand to tilt my face back to his, eyes searching mine before he smiled and captured my mouth.
He slid into me with the same gentleness he kissed me. I broke from his mouth and moaned as he pushed deeper, his teeth nipping at my throat while he waited for me to recover from that first penetration, because it truly was that amazing every time he pushed into me. When I didn't bring my mouth back willingly, he turned my face to his and kissed me as he started moving inside of me. I could tell straight away we were racing the sunrise. He was angry and trying very hard not to take it out on me. I'd seen this side of him plenty of times.