Into the Darkness

by Delilah Devlin

  CHAPTER 18

  Chessa strode into the station, waving to the desk sergeant as she passed through the metal detectors. Her steps felt light, her mood brighter than she could remember in a long while. Her trip to the “blood bank” with Natalie had turned out very interesting indeed.

  And dammit, she was really starting to like the younger woman.

  Natalie had handled herself well. Had managed to drink unsupervised without incident, and even helped her thwart Fernando’s plans to take a bite from her lovely throat. She might just make it on her own.

  She rounded the corner of their cubicle and found Rene sitting forward in his chair, staring at a manila folder dangling between his fingertips—a grimy, worn, tear-stained manila folder.

  She drew up short, and her gaze shot to her filing cabinet. The lock looked like it had been filed. The bottom drawer was pulled open.

  Chessa stared, unable to raise her gaze to Rene’s. She felt as though he’d plunged his fist into her chest and was squeezing the life out of her heart.

  “You shoulda told me, Chessa, what this was really all about,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse. “You shouldn’t leave a partner, a friend, swingin’ in the wind with only half the story. I been flyin’ blind with this case.”

  “It’s not your concern—where it all started,” she said, forcing the words past frozen lips.

  “Damn, if it’s not. It started with you!” he shouted, slapping the folder on the desk. He lurched from his chair and gripped her upper arms. “It all started with you!” He shook her. “With your husband…your child!”

  Chessa tried to shrug his hands off, but he wouldn’t let go. Because she wasn’t willing to hurt him to make him release her, she lifted her face and let him see the tears filling her eyes. “Yes, I was the first!” she shouted. “The first to be hunted! The first to lose everything! It’s why I’m here. Why I’m a cop.” She turned her head, and her gaze landed on the black and white photographs spilling from the edges of the folders.

  “I lived in Ardeal,” she whispered, “before the wall…in a little cottage. I came into my moon-cycle and found a man I wanted for mine.” She stopped to breathe, realizing each indrawn breath hurt. “We had a child…I came home and found them both…”

  Her eyes closed to shut out the picture of her baby girl’s small broken body. She couldn’t finish it. Couldn’t get the words past the lump in the back of her throat. She stood suspended by his hands and cried the way she hadn’t been able to forty years ago.

  Rene cursed and pulled her against his chest. “Cheech, Jesus. I’m sorry.” He rocked on the balls of his feet, hating himself for his anger and her for not telling him the truth.

  If he’d known…if he’d been prepared…oh hell, he’d still have fallen for Natalie like a ton of rocks. The pictures of the little girl, Ana Tomas, could be his own.

  “Shhhh…” He cupped the back of her head and pressed her face into the corner of his neck and held her while she cried. By the layer of dust he’d brushed from the file, she hadn’t looked at the pictures in a long, long time. She’d hidden the hurt away, out of sight. Covered her heart with a thick layer of hedgehog spines and tough-talking insults.

  Kinda like he’d done after Elaine had died in his arms. Until one pretty little blonde in a pink dress twitched her ass and made him want something more. Only this time, he’d attempted to refuse his fate. He didn’t want to head down the same tragic path. But he’d already let Natalie down when she’d been abducted and compounded the blunder when he’d been taken as well. He’d been mad as hell at Chessa and not willing to forgive…himself.

  “It’s all right. Don’t cry anymore.” He kissed her hair and hugged her again.

  Her sobs were softer and her arms lifted from where they’d hung limply at her sides to clutch his waist.

  Rene hadn’t forgotten how to soothe a woman’s tears. His hands smoothed up and down her back and he stood still, letting her drench the front of his shirt. “You know I’m useless at drying tears. Look at me. My shirt’s all wet.”

  Chessa’s laugh sounded more like a sob, and she drew away to wipe her tears with the backs of her hands.

  He bent over her and pulled away her hands, and then used his thumbs to gently sweep them away. “Your little girl was a pretty thing. Just like her mama.”

  Chessa’s smile wobbled. “She’d just learned how to say ‘Shit.’ Her daddy taught her. He thought it was funny and I got mad.”

  “I bet he knew you didn’t mean it.”

  Her grateful smile tore at his heart. “Inanna fostered all the children out after that. Built that big damn wall around the grounds. Turned humans in exchange for their service guarding the place. We weren’t safe in this world anymore.”

  “Why didn’t you stay there?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Because I didn’t care if they got me. And I wanted to go after the bastards and tear them apart, limb by limb.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “Figuratively?”

  A shaky smile stretched her lips. “Literally, actually.”

  “You’re the woman to do it.”

  “Yes, I am.” Her smile faded, and she leaned toward him. “Thanks.” The kiss she placed on his lips was chaste.

  The one he gave her back was not. “Chessa,” he groaned as he tore his mouth away, “I thought if I put some distance between myself and Natalie—”

  She placed a finger over his lips. “You can’t help this. It’s too late to even try to resist.”

  He sat and pulled her onto his lap, kissing her like he loved her, his fingers clutching her hair as he desperately tried to still the desire clamoring to be fulfilled. And he did love her, in a way. “I don’t get how I can do this with you, when I’m crazy for Natalie.”

  “It’s a curse,” she murmured in between wet glides of lips and tongue. “We love and fight like this. Our passions all intermixed.”

  “But I’m not turned. Not a damn vampire. Why do I feel this way?”

  “You’re linked to us now. She was a virgin when she bit you. It’s something mystical. Something you can’t really fight. The same way she will always come back to you, you will never be free of her or this lust. You will want others.” She slipped off his lap and took a step back.

  Rene didn’t stop to think. He thumbed the button at the top of her trousers and skimmed them down her legs, pushing her soggy socks and shoes away.

  When he sat back in his chair, she reached for his pants and opened them, helping him wrestle them just past his hips to free his cock.

  “Do you think we’ll finish conversations like this often?” he asked, his voice rasping with need.

  “Only if Natalie ever lets you out of her hotel room. Hurry!” she said, and slid a leg over his lap to straddle him. “You realize we’ve worked together four years and this is the first time we’ve ever fucked? How’d that happen?”

  He centered his cock between her slick folds and groaned as she wriggled to ease down his shaft. Moist heat surrounded his cock, robbing him of the ability to speak. “Stupid…stubborn…”

  She rose with her toes barely touching the ground on either side of him and lowered herself again, dragging her pussy up and down his shaft.

  He wanted more. More to taste, more to feel. He shoved her jacket off her shoulders and pushed her shirt up under her holster to free her breasts. He latched onto a small pink nipple and groaned, all the while sucking hard.

  Chessa rose and fell, faster, harder. The metal chair rolled forward and back, creaking beneath their frantic movements.

  He leaned back as far as the chair would allow and hammered upward to greet each downward stroke. They worked in opposition, blending naturally like they’d done this a thousands times before.

  “Rene?” Her cry was feminine, small, uncertain.

  “Yeah baby, I’m here, I’m holdin’ you. Come for me. Come, now!” He planted his feet on the tile floor and jounced on the seat, trying to tunnel deeper, trying
to break beyond the crest of the wave, until suddenly they were both thrust high.

  When their breaths slowed, Chessa snuggled next to his chest. “We need to get back to the hotel room. Natalie…”

  He should have felt guilty, but he didn’t. What did that mean? “Yeah, she shouldn’t be alone.”

  “Neither should you.”

  “I was just about to say the same thing to you.”

  Chessa lifted her head and gave him a lopsided smile. “I was thinking about the storm.”

  He lifted one dark eyebrow. “Do you think…?”

  “Let’s play it by ear. Don’t wanna scare her off just yet.”

  Natalie sat huddled in the chair watching the newscast. Earlier, delicious-smelling men with heavy tool belts had barreled into the room to latch and nail the window shutters closed. The storm had made landfall and was sweeping across the city, hammering New Orleans with rain and hundred-miles-per-hour winds. At least the weather would provide some kind of protection from anything stalking her on feet, paws or wings. At least for now.

  She thought of Chessa and Rene working to find a way to make her life safer and ensure she had a future, and she wished she could help in some way. Unaccustomed to waiting for others to do for her, a deep agitation settled over her, a restlessness she knew she had to control.

  For the restlessness only speeded her metabolism. She needed to be busy, moving, doing…something. Instead, she was warehoused here in a hotel room, more isolated than before.

  The soft snick of a lock preceded the door swinging open. Chessa and Rene walked inside carrying rain-spotted bags.

  “Fajitas?” Rene asked, holding up one for her.

  “Meat! Yes!” she said, reaching eagerly for the bag, grateful for something to fill her belly until the craving for blood returned.

  She set aside the wrapped tacos and dove into the thin strips of beef. “They overcooked it,” she said, speaking around a mouthful of spicy, bloody meat.

  “They barely seared the outside,” he said, smiling as he seated himself at the small desk. “And we were lucky to find any place open.”

  “Any cooking is too much, right Nat?” Chessa said, perching on the edge of the bed.

  “I shouldn’t gripe,” Natalie said sitting cross-legged on the bed in her undies and long T-shirt. “I’m just a little testy after being holed up here all night.”

  Natalie noted a glance between Chessa and Rene. It registered they’d shared several since they entered the room. She set aside her Styrofoam box and inhaled slowly, trying not to make it too obvious she was scenting the air.

  But it was there. The smell of sex. On both of them. Natalie ducked her head and busied herself putting away the remnants of her meal.

  “Not hungry?” Rene asked.

  She shrugged and gave him a weak smile. After all, she couldn’t rail at him. She’d gotten off with a total stranger in a seedy bar. He’d only fucked his best friend.

  Her indiscretion was so much worse. But his still hurt.

  “I have to get a shower,” Rene said, avoiding her glance. He grabbed his duffel and headed into the bathroom, leaving Natalie alone with Chessa.

  The camaraderie she’d felt earlier at the blood bar was tainted now by her jealousy. She felt badly that this was happening, because really—what right did she have to feel possessive of Rene? She was planning on leaving anyway.

  “You know you needn’t worry I’m stealing him from you,” Chessa said quietly, plucking at a loose thread on the coverlet.

  Since she’d brought the subject up, Natalie pinned her with a quelling glance. “You two had sex.”

  Chessa’s eyebrows rose. “Your nose is getting good. We did. But it was comfort, not love.”

  Natalie swallowed against the lump burning the back of her throat. “I guess I’m just trying to get used to the rules.”

  “When it comes to pleasure,” Chessa said softly, “there are none for us.”

  No rules. What a heady thought. “Go with the flow,” Natalie said, her tone wooden. “You said that before.”

  “That’s right. We have to use humans to survive, and our lusts are too closely intertwined to get too fussy about crossing lines.”

  Natalie ducked her head, wanting to ask but feeling more than a little embarrassed. “When you did that to me…before at the bar…was that pleasurable for you?” She peeked up beneath her lashes to catch the policewoman’s expression.

  Chessa’s smile was slow, and she lay back, resting on an elbow. “I was creaming in my panties for you, darlin’. When his hand disappeared into your jeans, I was feeling what he was doing to you.”

  “It was odd. I could feel his touch from across the room.”

  “Some of us have special gifts.”

  “Damn.” Natalie shifted her legs, bringing them together.

  “Remembering is enough for you right now, isn’t it?” Chessa asked, her voice pitched low.

  Natalie blushed. Yes, her panties dampening, too. “I guess I have no room for jealousy, do I?”

  “No, you don’t. But it’s totally up to you what happens next.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Chessa shrugged. “We’ve still got the rest of the night to get through. We’re going to hunker down while the worst of the storm passes. How we spend our time is your choice.”

  Natalie’s eyes widened at the implications. Chessa and Rene…and her. Her whole body warmed, blood zinging to every one of her erogenous zones.

  She was in charge of what happened tonight. Her pleasure was entirely her choice. Thoughts of the three of them locked inside this room together spun fantasies that until now, she hadn’t ever considered.

  She stood and gathered all the half-empty food containers and set them in the hallway for the staff to remove, and then turned back to stare at the other woman from across the room.

  Chessa had moved to the armchair. Her legs were crossed, one scissoring up and down. Enough proof of her agitation for Natalie to know she was aroused as well. Her dark gaze was watchful, her body seemingly relaxed, but her musk and warming floral scent wafted with each slow turn of the fan’s blades.

  Natalie held her breath and gathered up the hem of her T-shirt. She pulled it over her head, and then stood with it dangling in her fingertips while she stared at Chessa.

  Chessa rimmed her lips with her tongue, looking as though she already imagined sucking on a nipple.

  Natalie slipped her fingers beneath the elastic of her panties and pushed them down her hips, enjoying the feel of cool air wafting between her legs. “Do you think he’ll mind if we start without him?”

  “I think he’ll die when he sees us,” Chessa drawled. “It’s every man’s fantasy, isn’t it? I just never figured it would be one of mine, too.”

  Natalie understood what she meant. The thought of doing this with any other woman held no appeal. Chessa had been an integral part of her initiation. She’d set the scene, whether she’d realized it or not, leaving Natalie isolated in close quarters with Rene. She’d instigated Natalie’s jealousy from the start—increasing her awareness of Rene. She’d been present every time she and Rene had made love, hovering at the edges of their consciousness.

  Chessa’s gaze glittered as she stared at Natalie’s sex-slick pussy. “Are you uncomfortable with the idea…of us?”

  Natalie shook her head. “It feels kind of natural—like we’re already connected, we’ve been through so much.”

  “We’re not going to think about any of that now. Let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

  Natalie tilted her head toward the bathroom door. “Do you think he’s up for it?”

  Chessa grinned. “He’s working under the influence of your allure. It’s like a super-charged Viagra. He won’t be able to resist.”

  “How do you want to start?”

  She shrugged. “You’re in charge. I’ll let you lead.”

  Beneath Chessa’s avid stare, the now familiar heat suffused Natalie’s body as blood continue
d to rush south to plump the folds of her sex, and excitement tightened her nipples until they strained outward. Natalie lifted her hands to cup her breasts and closed her eyes as another wave of heat swept over her.

  The thought of Rene finding them together didn’t shock her, instead it spurred her excitement. She opened her eyes and sauntered slowly toward Chessa. She held out her hand. “I want to undress you.”

  Chessa’s shuttered, watchful expression was supplanted by one of uncertainty. Natalie realized Chessa was entering new territory, too.

  Still, Chessa slipped her hand inside Natalie’s.

  Natalie squeezed it gently and tugged Chessa to her feet. Then Natalie leaned close enough to rub her nipples over Chessa’s clothed breasts, staring into the other woman’s face as her mouth opened on a gasp.

  “Never figured you for a tease,” Chessa said, her breath catching.

  “Never knew this would feel so good.” And it did. Her nipples puckered tighter and her pussy pulsed and clasped as she rubbed against the tips rising to points beneath Chessa’s shirt.

  Natalie placed her hands on Chessa’s upper chest and smoothed them under her jacket, pushing it off her shoulders to fall onto the chair behind her. She made quick work of the holster, letting her fingers slip beneath the straps to caress Chessa’s soft skin, acquainting herself with the lean muscle beneath.

  When she had the harness unbuckled, she dropped it on top of the jacket. Then she reached for the buttons at the front of the blouse and opened them one by one, skimming her fingers along her bare skin.

  When she drew the edges apart, she stared at Chessa’s bared breasts. Hers were similar to Natalie’s yet very different in intriguing ways—smaller, firmer, higher. The points were a bit sharper and darker. The differences excited Natalie, and she gave into the urge to suckle, bending to pull one spiked tip between her lips.

  Chessa’s hands rose from her sides and grasped Natalie’s head, cuddling her close to her chest while it lifted and fell rapidly, her breaths soft, but coming faster.