Colin secured me tighter in his embrace as he placed his hand on the back of my head and held me close. “Things you already know, Nyx. It wouldn’t be easy to take him do ko td hwn. He’s powerful. One of the most powerful beings I have ever met. I can’t imagine that anyone could truly hurt him.”
I breathed in Colin’s masculine scent and let out a shuddering sigh. I found comfort in the clean smell of his T-shirt and his faint Dragon scent that’s a little smoky but more like a campfire in the woods. An evergreen breeze with a tinge of smoke.
“Unless they took him by surprise.” I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the mess in the apartment—and the blood. Whose blood?
Colin just held me as we stood there and I felt his warmth through the leather of my fighting suit. He felt comfortable, reassuring, almost convincing me that everything was all right. That we’d find Rodán and he’d be fine.
After I’d taken off my weapons belt and my boots, Colin and I sat on my couch. He put his arm around my shoulders and I snuggled against him as he used the TV remote to find a movie for us to watch.
Something so real and warm rose up inside me that I could barely hold back from saying anything about it to him.
My heart had healed over Adam. Not fully, because in some way I would always love Adam.
But Colin … the intensity of what I felt for him filled my chest and seemed to travel through every limb. I knew it then. Colin meant more to me than I had even realized. Could it be love, so soon after Adam? Was that possible?
My heart said yes. But my head told me to wait a little longer before I voiced it. Because when I did, I wanted it to be special. Not now when Rodán was missing and I was so worried. Later, when the time was right.
Right now while I was with Colin he helped me put aside my fears for Rodán, if only for that short window of time.
When it was time to leave I secured my weapons belt and pulled my boots on. Colin gave me a deep, sensual kiss before we left my apartment and entered the night.
ELEVEN
Instead of racing me to our destination—a race Colin always won—he took my hand. It was like I had blinked once and then we were there.
I’d never experienced anything like it. No pain, no getting sick from the transference. We were standing at my front door and the next thing I knew we were in the darkness in front of the Nymphs’ apartment building on Fortieth Street.
“No wonder you always beat me in a race,” I said as he released my hand. “Dragons are handy to have around.”
He kissed the top of my head. We moved to the side of the building, where we’d arranged to meet the others. Joshua and Ice were already there. Desmond showed up not a minute later.
I rested my hand on the hilt of my sheathed Dragon-clawed dagger. “We’re going to take these guys in. They have something to do with Rodán’s disappearance, and we’re going to get it out of them,” I said. “But first we’ll go in and observe. We need to know if they’re Vampires or jus nnew w>
I made a sign with my fingers. “This means subdue and arrest if they’re not Vampires.” I made another sign. “No holds barred. Do whatever it takes to take down the Vamps, without killing them.”
I made sure everyone had silver handcuffs blessed with holy water along with garlic disks. I’d brought a couple of garlic-and-holy-water “grenades” recently designed for Vampires. It would be like throwing a smoke bomb into a room full of humans. The rest of us would smell like an Italian restaurant but the Vampires should feel pretty crappy with lungs full of garlic and holy water.
Colin and I cloaked ourselves in glamours. Desmond had worked with me on mine after the Zombie incident so I could now hide from most paranorms, too.
Nymphs wouldn’t be able to see me for sure. I figured it had something to do with their one-track minds and their nature. Nymphs are happy and horny, completely sanguine. They’re not a suspicious race of beings. Quite the opposite.
The Vampires had once been human so they definitely wouldn’t be able to see me, a huge plus.
Joshua shifted into a shadow, and Ice chose his white mouse form. Desmond would hide somewhere in the apartment. As long as I had a hold of him he would remain hidden behind my glamour, but I needed to have my hands free once we were inside.
I looked at the time on my phone then shoved it back into its holster on my weapons belt. “The Nymphs should be home in about twenty minutes.”
In shadow form, Joshua slid through the crack beneath the door. A moment later the locks rattled and the door squeaked open.
The Nymphs’ apartment was just as messy now as it had been earlier. Clothing was scattered on the floor. Two pizza boxes were on one end table, and several tubes of lipstick in various shades sat on the other. Six cans of soda were on the glass-topped coffee table, a straw sticking out of one of the cans, bright red lipstick on the end of the straw.
Colin glanced around. “Shouldn’t be too hard to find a hiding spot.”
I stepped over a hairbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a rolling pin, and a pair of stockings. I got why stockings would be on the floor in the living room, but I didn’t get the hairbrush or the toothpaste, much less the rolling pin. Truthfully, I didn’t want to know.
Colin faded behind his glamour—not even paranorms could see through it—while Joshua and Ice took their positions. Desmond climbed over stacks of clothing and shoes on the floor of the coat closet and hid in there. Old standbys like coat closets were always handy.
I chose a corner where I could get a good view of everything and leaned up against the wall.
It wasn’t too long before the Nymphs’ giggles sounded from the other side of the door. Then came the rattle of the doorknob and the squeak of the hinges as they pushed the door open.
“I can’t wait until they get here.” Trixie immediately shimmied out of a thigh-high dress and was left standing in lacy red panties, no bra, as she talked to Bubbles.
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Bubbles unzipped her own dress. “I want the tall one again. Gary is so hot.”
“So’s the brunette,” Trixie said. “I’m more than happy to take Kurt again.”
Vampires named Kurt and Gary? Vampires had names like Michael, Franklyn, Alexander … not what sounded like nicknames.
Bubbles went through a door that I assumed was a bedroom. She came back out with an armload of red and black lingerie. The Nymphs were giggling and squealing in delight as they talked about the males who would be arriving soon. They talked and talked while they tried on lingerie, gazing at themselves in a mirror that covered an entire wall.
“Isn’t it great we look so much alike?” Bubbles said as she tugged up her corset, pushing her boobs until they could have been used as a serving platter. She sounded like she could hardly breathe from the tightness of the corset. “Males just love the idea of twins. So we make the perfect pair.”
“These black panties go perfectly with this red corset,” Trixie said. “I love the color contrast. You get so much more color when you wear panties instead of a thong.”
I rolled my eyes. Who cared?
“Tomorrow night let’s wear leather.” Bubbles adjusted her garter and started pulling on a pair of stockings. “Those Shifters love the dominatrix look.”
Trixie nodded, her blond curls bouncing around her face. “You know, the Catwoman outfit just might go over well with those three.”
Bubbles finished with her stockings and rummaged around the room, looking for something. “Sam loves to watch the others tying us up.”
“So does Rick. I’m not too sure about the leash thing, but if they like it, I’ll end up liking it. Whatever gets them hot. It’s all just foreplay to me.” Trixie picked up a tube of bright red lipstick that matched her corset.
“My favorite red heels are here somewhere …” Bubbles’s voice trailed off before she rose up with a triumphant look on her face. She waved what looked like a magazine. “The newest edition of Fetishwear Today is here. I was wondering where it
went.”
“Did you see the feature on the new latex outfits including hoods? I love the bizarre look of some of them,” Trixie was saying.
I really, really wished they would stop their mind-numbing banter, bouncing from one subject to another. If they giggled for much longer I was going to shoot them both.
What a couple of idiots. Nymphs have one-track minds—sex, sex, and wait, more sex.
Did I mention Nymphs are focused on sex?
A friend of theirs was missing yet all they were concerned with were the males who should be arriving soon and the latest sex toys and fetish outfits.
The Nymphs finished dressing, then put on a heavier coating of makeup and found their heels. They each grabbed an armload of scattered leftover lingerie and returned to the bedro s toie pickeom just as someone knocked on the front door.
“Just a moment,” Trixie yelled. She came in a half run, half shuffle in heels so high they might as well have been stilts. Watching her taking little bitty steps in the heels, trying to avoid tipping over as she headed for the door was just comical.
Trixie opened the door.
“Kurt!” she squealed, which was worse than giggling. She kissed him and let him in the door before greeting Gary with another shriek of obvious delight.
The moment the males entered the room, my senses went on full alert.
These males definitely weren’t human … they were something Other.
But what? Their scents were a mixture. One had a Shifter’s scent of amber, but I also thought I caught the faint whiff of dirt.
And the other—a Doberman. Like a Doppler might smell if his animal form was one of that breed. But again the hint of dirt mixed in with the animal scent.
We had suspected they could be real Vampires, and I had a strong feeling now that we’d been right.
“Hold on a sec, guys. Let me get Bubbles. We wanted to enter together.” Trixie exited the room with the itty-bitty shuffle steps. The Vampires could not take their eyes off her red panty-covered round ass.
Brother, these two were just too much.
The Vampires started to talk quietly.
“Okay,” whispered Gary. “Follow the plan. We need to keep them busy for a couple of hours till we hit the twenty-four-hour mark. I’ll give you the signal then. In the meantime, we’ll have our fun with them. Then ten days from now, we will have our own personal Vampire play toys.”
Vampire play toys. There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt.
“Excellent,” Kurt said. “Everything has to go right tonight. He was so angry with us because we didn’t take them back with us last night. We need to get them tonight, but first we have to find out if they told anyone anything about last night. Just follow my lead.”
“You got it,” said Gary.
“He” was so angry last night? Who’s “he”?
The airheads came shuffling in side by side. “Hi, guys, do you like our outfits? We dressed for you,” Bubbles said. She grabbed Gary by the arm and pulled him to the couch, snuggling up to him.
Trixie did the same with Kurt. “If you’d like us in something else,” she said, “we can show you all the stuff we have. Whatever you want. Do you like Catwoman?”
“You’re both perfect just like this, ladies. You look amazing. You’re so hot,” Kurt said to Trixie as he nuzzled her throat. “So beautiful.”
“Did you enjoy last night?” Gary was saying to Bubbles. “I couldn’t wait to see you again.”
“Yes.” Bubbles hissed the word as she pressed her breasts against Gary’s chest. “I loved it so much. I kept thinking about the Vampire look all day.” Her voice was husky, much different from the way she’d sounded earlier.
The Nymphs had suddenly transformed from birdbrains to sensual and seductive. It was like they had totally different personalities with these two males.
When I was about to lose my mind from boredom, the Vampires told the Nymphs they wanted to take them out. Trixie and Bubbles rushed off to their bedroom to change once again.
“Wish we could take them now,” Kurt said when the Nymphs were gone.
Gary nodded. “Yeah, but we have to wait.” He tilted his head. “Why did we get here so early?”
“So they don’t leave to see someone else,” Kurt said. “You know Nymphs. Their attention span is only as long as the length of time a male is with them.”
“True,” Gary said.
“We’ll take them back to the apartment and do it there.” Kurt grinned. “It’ll be fun. They look hot. Nothing like taking a hot Nymph and turning her.”
“These two take the cake for having fluff for brains,” Gary said with a laugh. “Can you just imagine what he will say?”
Kurt frowned. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea turning them.”
The Nymphs burst back into the living room, now dressed in tiny red dresses.
I dropped my glamour and gestured with one hand in the sign to take these Vampires down.
At the same time, I used my teeth to pull the pin from the garlic-and-holy-water grenade and lobbed it in front of the two Vampires. It fell to the floor and rattled across the wood.
Colin, Joshua, and Ice appeared.
The Vampires startled. The Nymphs screamed.
Immediately the Vampires recovered from their shock. The Nymphs did not.
Before the grenade could go off, the Vampire Kurt shifted into a Bengal tiger.
The other Vampire, Gary, transformed into a Doberman.
Both vicious, frightening creatures.
It didn’t matter. The grenade would do the trick.
Garlic and holy water exploded throughout the room.
My lungs burned from the strength of the garlic. My eyes would have watered if I’d had tear ducts.
The Doberman snarled and the tiger roared. They each shook it off as if the grenade had just been a nuisance.
A nuisance.
Ice in his white jaguar form gave a powerful cry, lunged, and took the tiger down. They ser the landed in the middle of the coffee table. A tremendous crashing sound as soda cans and glass went flying.
“Get out,” I shouted at the Nymphs, who were just standing on one side of the room screaming. I was going to arrest them just for the annoying sounds they were making tonight. I owed them.
As the Nymphs ran through the front door and slammed it behind them, I summoned my elements.
Colin transformed into a smaller version of his Dragon form. He bellowed, his tail sweeping table lamps, pizza boxes, and lipstick off the glass-topped end tables, and then sent the tables themselves flying. They crashed against the walls, shattering.
The tiger clawed at Ice, whose white pelt was streaked red with blood. I’d never seen Ice injured in a fight before. The tiger was strong, stronger than any Shifter or Vampire should be alone.
Ice shifted into an albino boa constrictor and started to wrap himself around the tiger. The Tiger transformed into an enormous alligator with huge jaws snapping at the constrictor’s thick white body.
I wrapped ropes of my air element around the jaws of the alligator, snapping them shut and binding them tight.
The albino boa constrictor morphed into Ice. Man is the alligator’s only real enemy. I tossed Ice one of my daggers. He brought it down so fast toward the alligator’s white belly that I thought Ice was going to gut the Vampire-Shifter. Ice pulled just short of slicing him open.
Colin blasted fire at the unnaturally large Doberman that yelped and ducked out of the way, only to run into Joshua.
The Doberman leapt up, snarling, its jaws going for Joshua’s throat. Joshua swung his fist at the dog, which went flying across the room.
It hit the wall and transformed back into its Vampire form before it landed on the floor.
The alligator shifted back into its Vampire form with Ice still holding my dagger at its throat.
Vampires looked at each other. Stark resolution was on their features.
Before I knew what was happing, the Vampire-Shifter grabbe
d Ice’s blade. With unbelievable, inhuman strength, Kurt brought the blade down on his own neck.
I watched in horror as the blade sliced through the Vampire’s neck in a smooth, effortless, and flawless motion, as if I had done it myself.
He’d severed his own head.
The Vampire had severed his own head.
I jerked my attention to the Vampire up against the wall. Gary had a wooden stake in his hand that hed pulled from his pocket, and was raising it up as if to drive it down and into his own heart.
Colin and I dove for him at the same time. I grabbed the stake and Colin grabbed the Vampire. “No!” he shouted. “I will not be taken!”
I straightened, holding the stake in my hand. “Yes. You will.”
Colin tossed me a pair of silver handcuffs and I snapped them on the Vampire’s wrists.
TWELVE
“We need to interrogate this scum,” Ice said in a low growl that reminded me of his jaguar form.
“Nyx.” Desmond’s eyes had a half-wild light to them when I turned to face him. Desmond had an accent from the world he was from, and the Scottish-like brogue was strong as he spoke. “I have to go to the apartment where Rodán disappeared. Now.”
“Why?” I said, feeling off balance from the intensity of his expression and the depth of conviction in his tone.
Desmond took my hand and led me away from the Vampire I’d just cuffed. “A moment ago I had a vision. Just a flash of one, but a vision nonetheless,” Desmond said. “We can’t wait.”
“What did you have a vision of?” Those black snakes were back wriggling in my belly.
“It was brief. A flash.” Desmond pushed his hand through his already messy hair, making it look in even more of a disarray than usual.
“What did you vision about, Desmond?” I tried to breathe, but a feeling of panic rose within me.
“Rodán,” he said. “I visioned about Rodán.”
Air didn’t want to come into my lungs.
“We have to go to the place he disappeared,” Desmond repeated and took a couple of steps away from me. “Once we’re there I should be able to tell you more. I might even be able to show you.”
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