Midnight Temptation

by Shari Nichols

  The soft little whimper that fell from her lips made him realize this was no whim she was giving into. She’d been suffering just as much, holding herself back, and it only made him want her all the more. He undid the clip that held all those lush waves in place and plunged his fingers into her hair. How many nights had he imagined her beautiful hair fanned out on his pillow and over his cock? He wrapped a handful around his fist and angled her head to deepen the kiss.

  With a moan, her hands snuck under his shirt to explore, leaving fiery need and heat along his skin. His body soared to life like coming out of a deep slumber. He broke the kiss and moved his lips to nip at her ear, which elicited another sweet moan.

  Not able to restrain himself any longer, his fangs extended fully from his lips. All he could think about was grazing them over every inch of her skin. “Gillian, you don’t know what you’re doing to me.” He trailed kisses along the slim column of her neck.

  She made these soft, sexy sounds, the kind that made him want to throw her over his shoulder like a damn caveman. He’d tie her to his bed and explore every inch of her body. He could spend hours kissing and touching her. He’d slowly slide the thin straps of her dress down and lick her breasts, suck on her nipples, and make her come, screaming his name until she begged him to stop.

  But she wasn’t ready…yet.

  A voice inside his head told him not to scare her away, to take things slow and let her set the pace. “This is what I’ve been thinking about since the day I knocked on your door, but I won’t push you, Gillian. The decision has to be yours.”

  She didn’t answer him with words. She pressed her soft lips to his, and her tongue delved into his mouth. White-hot lust flamed to life inside of him like a wildfire burning hot and blazing out of control.

  His cock throbbed. His control faltered.

  He wanted this woman with every breath in his body. But he knew deep down, he couldn’t push her to a place where she’d never return. She meant too much to him. With a sigh, he did something that just about killed him. He pulled away, carefully extricating his hands from her hair, leaving them both breathless and shaking.

  Her chest heaved, and confusion flashed in those soft brown eyes of hers, which now looked drowsy with lust. Her lips parted, still red and swollen from his kisses. Her neck looked abraded from the scratch of his beard across her delicate skin. “What are you doing? Why are you stopping?”

  “You’re right. We can’t do this unless you’re all in, and right now you’ve got too much going on, too much to worry about. I have patience, Gillian. I will wait as long as it takes for you to be ready because if there’s one thing I have, it’s time.” As for tonight, he’d take another ice-cold shower and pray that she’d come around sooner rather than later.

  Chapter 21

  By eleven-o-clock the next morning the shop buzzed with customers, most of them women. Gillian walked around with a tray of Dixie cups filled with a variety of potions from love to prosperity and health. Pillar candles of just about every color flew off the shelves, faster than they could restock them, along with bunches of lavender from their solarium for love spells.

  Saturday was typically busy under normal circumstances. Their customers liked to get their spellwork settled over the weekend, but with Samhain around the corner, they were slammed. Thanks to Belinda’s wizardry on social media, Enchantments had grown quite a following. And based on the traffic in the store, their efforts seemed to be working.

  Any time she caught a breather, Gillian checked her phone to see if Garrett had managed to come through with the water, but still no word so far. She couldn’t bear to stand around and do nothing. She’d go out of her mind with worry. The only way she knew how to handle her stress was to keep her mind and her hands busy.

  So she’d spent the better part of the morning, before anyone else had arrived, reading cards. The only vision that had come through was one of Brooke standing in what looked like a ballroom and wearing some white seventies looking dress. The Elvis classic, “Love Me Tender,” played inside her vision. She wasn’t sure what it meant but wrote it down in her journal nonetheless.

  “Gillian?” Natalya walked up and took one of the love potion cups off her tray. Today she wore a long, flowy skirt and a peasant blouse. No one would ever guess she was a cop. “Are you okay?” she whispered with genuine concern in her voice.

  “Who me?” Gillian forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m holding it together.”

  “Come with me for a minute.” Natalya pulled her away to a quiet corner and made sure they were alone. “Try to act as natural as you can. We don’t know who’s watching. There are some extra uniforms parked outside for added security.”

  Gillian sighed. “Okay, got it.” The news should’ve made her breathe easier, but somehow it didn’t.

  “This nightmare’s going to end soon.” Natalya held up the potion and swirled the pink liquid in the cup. “Does this stuff actually work?”

  “It depends. Is there someone you’re attracted to?”

  Natalya’s eyes grew wide and a furious blush spread across her cheeks. “Oh no. Hell no.” She made a face and put the cup back on the tray. “I’ll be in the reading area,” she mumbled and walked away.

  “Whatever you say.” Gillian couldn’t help but think there was a story behind that denial.

  Saje broke away from a group of browsing customers and snuck behind the counter to reach for an oval mirror and dried flowers. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you.” She glanced over at Gillian, and a gleam appeared in her eyes. “Talk about putting on one hell of a show last night,” she whispered. “You two were giving off some serious pheromones. I went back to Nick’s place after the party and banged the hell out of him.”

  Gillian gave a half-hearted laugh that felt as hollow as it sounded. “Glad I could help.” After last night, talking about sex might just careen her senses into overload.

  Lucky for her, they closed early today. She was running on fumes. Tossing and turning for hours, she hadn’t slept a wink. She’d been restless and edgy, and now twelve hours later, her body was still on fire from something as simple as a kiss.

  But that wasn’t just any kiss. No. Garrett’s kiss had been hot and sensual…and totally addicting. She’d replayed the scene in her mind, ruminating over every last detail, how he smelled, how he tasted, the softness of his lips. And she wondered if Garrett had ruined her. How could any male compare after that? It didn’t help to have him so close, in the next room, only a breath away. It was making her lose her mind. But at least it helped her from obsessing over Brooke. She welcomed the distraction.

  “Earth to Gillian? Mind telling me where you just went?” Saje’s voice pulled her from a host of images, one more erotic than the next.

  Gillian placed her hand on her chest. “Sorry, I zoned out for a minute. I guess I’m still a little sleep deprived. You know you were right, by the way, about Garrett having a thing for me.”

  “Well, I usually am, especially when it comes to sex and relationships.” Saje grinned. “What happened? Did you two lovebirds finally have sex?”

  “No, and I’m not going to for now.” Not to say she wasn’t tempted. “The truth is I’m just not sure where this could go. And I can’t think of anything until Brooke’s found. On that note, did you find a spell in one of the Grimoires?”

  “I did, but it wasn’t easy. I searched through the entire coven library and finally came across one. If it’s invoked properly, it should do the trick. I brought the book with me so we could look at the spell together. It’s in the back.” Saje angled her head toward the storeroom.

  Gillian glanced at the customers milling around the store. “It’s too busy now. Let’s try and sneak away when things calm down.”

  Between Gillian, Delilah, and Saje, the three spent the better part of the morning reading tarot cards and invoking a variety of incantations that ran the gamut from keeping a lover with a roving eye to succumbing to temptation, to bringing a couple back together a
fter a separation.

  They waited for a lull in the crowd and left Delilah to man the front. Gillian followed Saje into the storeroom and shut the door. Immediately, Gillian spotted the thick, leather-bound tome propped up on the desk. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this. What did you find?”

  “There’s a spell along with a potion that acts as a kind of antidote to a blood blond.” Saje waved her hand over the amethyst encrusted on the front cover. “Show me vampire curses.” The brass buckles clicked and unlocked. The pages flipped to a section for Protection Spells against Otherworldly Forces. A picture of a symbol Gillian had never seen before appeared across the page. “This is the closest thing I could find. I’m afraid there’s a catch.” Saje glanced at the book, refusing to look Gillian in the eye.

  Her stomach did a little flip. “What kind of catch?”

  “The potion needs to be administered before the full moon or the bond can never be severed.” Saje’s shoulders sagged forward. “Hey, we still have time.”

  Gillian sucked in a harsh breath. “Then let’s get to work.” She ran a finger over the faded text. “It looks like we’ll need dried garlic cloves, crushed henbane leaves, and vervain for the potion. The spell requires black candles and pagan beads.”

  “We’re covered on the vervain and we have henbane leaves here. I’m sure Ellen has some beads lying around the coven. I can get started, even without the water.” Saje pulled out her phone and took a picture of the page. “I’ll forward you a copy. You’ll need to memorize the spell.”

  Gillian read over the rest of the spell and froze. “Hold on, it says to add seven drops of familial blood at the end as the final ingredient.”

  Saje glanced at the page. “The way I understand it, you’ll need to mix your blood with Brooke’s and get it into the potion somehow.” Saje went to one of the shelves of various magickal tools and picked up a small, sheathed ritual dagger. She walked back to where Gillian stood and passed the leather-bound handle to her. “You might want to hang onto this. Mixing your blood with hers is the only way to free her from the bond.”

  “How exactly am I supposed to do that?” Gillian reached for her purse off the back wall hook and shoved the dagger into the front pocket then zipped it shut.

  “A small cut on both your hands should suffice. I think the hard part will be getting the potion down her throat if she resists. But Brooke needs to drink every drop or it won’t take effect.”

  Gillian blew out a shaky breath. Assuming she could find a way to get Brooke alone once they did find her, how was she going to get seven drops of their blood into a potion and force her to drink it without puking? This wasn’t going to be easy by any stretch. “I think we’d better go over this again.”

  The rest of the day went by in a whirlwind. Still no texts or calls from Garrett. She wondered if he managed to get his hands on the water. She tried to pass off the incessant checking of her phone by faking a smile and a positive attitude; although, in truth, it became harder by the minute. When Gillian finished with her last reading of the day, which involved using a deck of Tarot Love Cards, along with rose petals and a green candle, she handed out the last of their potions. After she finished, she set the empty tray on the counter and started to clean up the mess from earlier.

  Delilah walked up with her coat and purse in hand then touched her shoulder. “Are you okay? You look upset.”

  Remembering too late, Gillian put on a huge, fake smile. “Yeah, of course. Why? What’s up?”

  “Well, a certain someone is waiting for you in the essential oil section. A very cute, certain someone.”

  “Garrett’s here?” A rush of excitement sparked low in her belly. Part of her hoped he had a lead on Brooke, but another part was just excited to see him again. She glanced at her watch. He wasn’t due to arrive for another thirty minutes.

  “Go see for yourself.” Delilah tugged on a short, black leather jacket, and pulled her long, blonde hair out from the collar. “I’m going to head out. Don’t forget about the Halloween Festival. Make sure to wear a costume.”

  “I will. Thanks, Dee. See you tomorrow.” Gillian tried to smooth the loose hairs back into her ponytail, and then walked across the store, surprised to find Lucas sniffing some black pepper oil. She smiled. “How’s life as a rock star? What are you here for today?”

  Lucas turned, and his face lit up when he saw her. After he screwed the top of the oil back on, he set the bottle on the shelf. “I stopped by to thank you. The spell you did for me must’ve worked. My band’s doing a gig at a private party. Who knows, it could be the start of something big.”

  “Way to go, Lucas. I’m happy for you.” Gillian gave him a quick hug.

  “I want to see what this will mean for my career. Do you have time for a quick reading?” Lucas gave her a flirty smile that did absolutely nothing for her.

  “We were just about to close.” She’d been a bundle of nervous energy all day. She couldn’t wait to get out of there. Gillian stole a glance at Natalya, who stood nearby. The detective gave her a nod.

  “Why not?” Gillian motioned for him to take a seat at a table in the reading section and walked behind the counter to get her decks. It wouldn’t hurt to help a friend in need.

  Chapter 22

  Garrett parked his Jeep at the W hotel lot and cut across the pier. By the time he’d put a call into his captain to inform him of this unofficial solo op, he insisted Garrett go with backup after he finished screaming in his ear of course. He was about to infringe on the underbelly of vampire society, which, in his opinion, would only arouse suspicion and detract from the task at hand. His goal was to get in without any questions, and the only way to do that was to go it alone.

  The entrance to Sybil’s Cave sat at the base of Castle Place and Frank Sinatra Boulevard. Working in Raven’s Hollow meant he’d passed by the caves many times before. If all went according to plan, today would be his first time inside.

  Gothic stone arches rose above a black wrought iron gate surrounded by bramble. Dark, dreary energy emanated from the place even with the sun shining overhead.

  Getting inside would be no easy task. Being a vampire gave him no special privileges for entry. Flashing a badge would probably only incite an attack, which was why he purposely left it, along with his Glock, in the car. The vampires in these caves had been left alone for years. To stroll in now in an official capacity could ruin his chances of getting the water and saving Brooke. He took a step closer and pressed a call button on the side of the gate.

  Two hulking vampire guards appeared, one on either side of the arches with wooden stakes holstered across their massive shoulders. Dressed in long, black cloaks, dark sunglasses covered their eyes, and both wore earpieces. He needed to use his only trump card, his connection to his sire. “I’m the son of Malcom Von Scrivner.”

  The one closest to him pulled out a small needle and a collection tube from his pocket. "Prove it.”

  Before Garrett could stop him, he plunged the tip into the side of his neck, and he let out a hiss.

  Once a few drops of blood splashed in, the guard secured the top with a stopper. “This should do,” he muttered and walked to a built-in slab of stone with a lid next to the call button. He lifted the lid and placed the tube inside.

  After several tense minutes, the guard nodded his head. “Go down the staircase and keep going. Someone will meet you in the clearing.”

  The gate opened and Garrett descended the stone staircase into darkness. He guessed the next step wouldn’t be quite as easy. Once inside the caves, he passed stalagmites and large jagged rock formations. The scents of must and fresh earth flared in his nostrils. The constant drip of water echoed through the cavernous space, vibrating through his veins. Shadows danced across the walls, glistening in the darkness like ghosts. Vampire bats flew overhead. “How apropos,” he muttered and kept on walking.

  A loud growling made him reach for his Glock, and then he remembered he’d left it in the Jeep. When he
got to the end of the cave, he found himself facing a pack of hellhounds with red eyes, pale skeletal bodies, and long fangs dripping with blood. Before they attempted to turn him into a snack, he gazed at them hard, using his best vampire glare, willing them to heel. Their slavering jaws snapped and sent blood droplets flying, but they didn’t come any closer. One wined, then another. After a few minutes, they finally tucked their tails and dipped their heads in submission.

  “Good dogs.” Jesus, talk about security. Garrett walked past the hounds and came to a sanctuary filled with a deep, blue stream. More armed guards surrounded the perimeter. Flame torches lit his path to a clearing where a group of vampires stood beside a built-in wall filled with glass test tubes marked Sybilfina.

  “Come forward.” The vampire on the far right called to him. He was decked out in the same black cloak and dark glasses as all the others. “I don’t believe we’ve met. But I certainly know your sire. We have multiple connections, sons and daughters of his all over the world.” He got to his feet and lifted the tube of Garrett’s blood to his nose. A satisfied smile spread across his face. “Your blood has quite a distinctive aroma with notes of an insatiable craving. How interesting. It almost makes me hungry.”

  Hell, what was he supposed to say except the truth? “I do crave a woman, night and day.” He cleared his throat, wanting to get this over with. “I need water for someone close to her. You can think of it as a favor to Malcom.” That statement would either get him a vial of water…or get him killed.

  “Your honesty is refreshing. I will grant your request, but only on one condition.”

  He’d been prepared for this. Garrett pulled out a wad of cash from the front pocket of his pants. “I’m willing to pay whatever you ask.”

  The vampire laughed, but it came out more like a growl. “I don’t want your money.” He sniffed the air again and his fangs elongated from his lips. “I’ll take payment one way—in blood.”