Stone Maiden

by Tina Gerow

  Ariel could only nod, even though she knew Kefira couldn’t see it from across the room. She found it impossible to look away from Logan. He turned his head and locked gazes with her as he sang the last line.

  I’m just a man…

  The last note trailed away, and only when applause thundered inside the small bar did Logan break eye contact with her. The loud clapping broke through the spell Ariel found herself caught in, and she blew out a breath of frustration. She was going to put Logan in danger if she acted like a lovesick teenager.

  If she hadn’t already given her word and taken this case, she would back away and let her sisters deal with Logan. But that was the cowards way out, and she’d never taken it before now.

  Amazing, almost a thousand years of dealing with the most evil beings in the known universe, and one handsome songwriter scared her enough to make her consider breaking her word.

  The next song began, a fast two-step, which had couples whirling and twisting around the dance floor and bystanders stomping and clapping their hands. Logan’s voice was beautiful and haunting. But now held a hint of the sexy, mischievous man she’d come to know.

  Ariel resisted tapping her foot in time to the music. It wouldn’t do to have the bodyguard bumping along with the beat.

  She glanced over at Logan, and suddenly, Ariel wanted sex. Hot, steamy, illegal in forty-seven countries sex. Something wasn’t right. Logan definitely turned her on, but this emanated from somewhere else.

  Every breath she inhaled rubbed her suddenly engorged nipples against her silk bra and made her want to weep. Wet heat pooled between her legs and soaked her panties, and every nerve ending begged to be touched, caressed and traced. Staggering under the onslaught, she gripped the side of the stage with one hand and dug her fingernails into her other hand until the sexual urges receded.

  Sometimes being supernatural sucked. It made her more sensitive to the negative energy of every otherworldly being’s output. Ariel guessed God made the gargoyles that way to help them track down the other species when needed, or alternately to better protect the humans in the crossfire.

  And there was only one being which exuded sex like this.

  “Keep an eye out for a succubus!” Ariel hurled into her sisters’ minds. It could be an incubus—the male flavor, but she had a hunch it was the female variety, since Logan was the most-likely target.

  “No shit!” swore Odeda inside Ariel’s mind. “I haven’t been this hot in four-hundred years!”

  Ariel shook her head in disbelief. Odeda liked to brag about her torrid affair with Charles II, King of Scotland to anyone who would listen. After a few centuries, hearing about it got old. And apparently, none of the men in the last four centuries could compare. But it seemed like good King Charles had just been dethroned.

  Getting back on track, Ariel scanned the crowd and was surprised to find that none of the crowd seemed affected. She knew gargoyles were more perceptive of otherworldly vibes, but the crowd should be showing some signs—unless… “She’s got to be powerful, watch your backs!”

  If the crowd wasn’t affected, the succubus planned to target someone specific, but Ariel doubted she and her sisters were the sudden targets of a succubus with bi-sexual tendencies. They tended to be extremely heterosexual and let their incubus counterparts target females.

  Logan’s song was in full swing, but Ariel needed to be close to protect him. She’d rather ruin his show than his life. She stepped out onto the stage and stopped short.

  Logan’s face was red and sweat dripped from his forehead, soaking into his T-shirt. Ariel glanced down to confirm her suspicions and noticed his tight jeans were even tighter around the crotch than before.

  “Logan is being targeted. Find her!” Ariel started toward Logan as the chorus rang out.

  Several women in the front row began to take off their panties and bras and hurl them onto the stage. Ariel cringed as a moist pair of blue bikinis landed on her arm. She brushed them aside as if they were a snake, which suddenly materialized out of thin air.

  Ariel made it within ten steps of Logan when five women launched themselves onto the stage, surrounding him. The last words of his song were lost in a tangle of arms and legs, and Ariel tasted metallic fear on the back of her tongue. She was too late.

  Chapter Five

  Logan saw Ariel step onto the stage toward him, and he almost wept in gratitude. Something was wrong—very wrong, and he knew Ariel would be able to make sense of it. He kept singing, because he wasn’t sure what else to do, but also because he trusted her to watch his back.

  Everything had been going well until a few minutes ago. The crowd went crazy over his new song. They were dancing and stomping to the music, when suddenly, he wanted sex.

  Not just horny, he wanted sex with the same urgency a dying man in the desert would want water. He needed sex.

  His erection was so hard and tight, he thought it would literally explode at any moment. Each breath he drew in to sing, sent agony zinging through him as the expansion of his abdomen tightened his jeans around his already painful flesh.

  Sweat dripped down his face, and he blinked at the sting of the salty liquid. Something hit him in the face, and he opened his eyes to see a leopard pattern bra sitting haphazardly on top of his guitar. Bras and panties of all colors blanketed the stage.

  Not knowing what else to do, he kept singing. The singers always got this kind of attention, but this had never happened to Logan—at least when he wasn’t in a one on one situation.

  He glanced to the side and saw Ariel striding toward him. Shock flowed across her face and he followed her line of sight to see what had surprised her.

  All he saw was a blur of bodies before his guitar was ripped from his hands and he was on his back under a moving mound of soft female flesh. At least he assumed they were all female from the distinctive curves and the smell of sultry perfume.

  Panic gripped him as rough hands roamed every inch of his body and his body’s reaction reached a fever pitch. He knew the only thing that would end his torment would be an ice pack or removing his package altogether—mere sex could never quench the need roaring through him. He began flailing his arms and legs in a futile attempt to break free.

  “Logan!” He heard Ariel call for him, her voice strained and urgent.

  Before he could draw breath to answer her, hands grabbed him under his arms and he was yanked backward a few inches. In the next instant, a searing pain ripped through the inside of his right thigh. His own cry of pain echoed in the enclosed space, and he noticed the trickle of hot liquid on his leg.

  My God, I’m bleeding.

  He had a moment to panic and then bodies flew off him until Ariel’s face filled his vision. There was a crease between her dark brows and concern clouded her eyes.

  “Logan, are you hurt?” She ran her hands over him as if to ensure everything was in working order. Her cool hands only served to heighten his already fever-pitched lust, and he fought the urge to whimper.

  He started to speak, but his throat went scratchy and dry. He cleared it and tried again. “My leg…”

  Suddenly dizzy and very weak, his vision wavered and Ariel’s face swam in front of him. He heard a thick ripping sound, and a second later, it registered in his foggy brain that Ariel had ripped open his jeans to check his leg.

  He sucked air in through his teeth, making a hissing sound as she pressed down against the wound and unspeakable pain lanced through his body.

  “Logan.”

  He heard his name and realized his eyes had drifted closed. It took all his willpower, but he pried them open and looked up at Dara.

  “Logan, you’ve lost a lot of blood, more than I can treat in front of this many people. Ariel will get you outside to the car and then home—I can treat you on the way.”

  He turned his head to the side and tried to see past the wall of bodies surrounding the stage. “Where’s…” His throat wouldn’t work, but he desperately wanted to see Ariel.


  Dara smiled down at him. “Don’t worry, she’s close.”

  Dara reached across his body to retrieve something from her medical kit and brushed across the front of his jeans. He couldn’t help but whimper. He was so aroused, every nerve in his body hurt. Even air against his sensitized skin sent anguish zinging along every inch of his flesh. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the onslaught.

  “Where are they?”

  Logan heard James’ booming voice and opened his eyes. Dara pointed backstage and James strode purposely in that direction.

  A few seconds later, there was a hollow thump and then all the pain and lust drained out of Logan like air rushing out of a popped balloon. He sighed as his entire body finally relaxed. Even the throbbing pain in his thigh lessened to a dull ache compared to the full body assault of a minute ago.

  He winced against a sharp stab in his arm, then Ariel’s face wavered in front of him. He tried desperately to say something to her, to ask her not to leave, but his mouth wouldn’t work and his eyes were closing again, of their own volition.

  “Go to sleep, Logan. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  He struggled against the warmth seeping into him, but in the end, it was too much for him to fight.

  *****

  James burst backstage like a contained explosion. There were two succubus still conscious, and one lying on the floor obviously dead, her severed head sitting a foot away from her body. Kefira and Odeda were trying to get the two conscious ones to say who hired them for the attack on Logan. They each had a succubus kneeling in front of them, their arms twisted behind their backs at painful angles.

  “We’ll be killed if we speak,” protested the redheaded succubus.

  James glared around the room at Odeda and Kefira, who glared back at him with bored contempt. He turned to the succubus who’d spoken. “And what do you think will happen to you if you don’t?” he queried. He leaned down eye level with her and deliberately let his incisors grow long and sharp.

  She flinched away and hissed. Succubus was a kind of sex demon who seduced men and compelled them to have mindless sex, orgasm after orgasm until they were literally dry husks. The succubus gained nourishment by taking the men’s fluids into their bodies through the sexual contact.

  A most painful way to die, since once the man ran out of semen, the rest of the body’s fluids soon followed. James had once found a succubus after a kill—she’d been covered in the victim’s blood and other bodily fluids he didn’t want to think about. But she’d drained him so fast, her body hadn’t had time to assimilate the fluids. The demon version of gorging.

  James snapped his teeth together close to her face and watched her eyes go round with fear. “You know what you do to those men? How painful it must be for them to know they are dying with every orgasm, but unable to stop. To feel their bodies waste away?

  “I’m an ancient vampire—one of the originals.” James let his index fingernail grow out into a deadly looking sharp claw. “I can suck you dry, or…” He sliced a long bloody furrow down her cheek, the stench of rotten blood filling the room. “I can slice you so full of holes, you’ll bleed out on the floor. And since you can’t die unless your neck is broken and your head severed, or if you are burned—I can leave you as a lifeless husk for eternity with all your feelings and thoughts in tact.”

  She only whimpered and shrank away from him.

  He whirled to the other succubus, this one a brunette. “Release your hold on Logan, now,” he commanded.

  She closed her eyes, but the pull of her powers remained. In one fluid movement, his razor sharp index finger claw sliced her head from her shoulders. It made a thunk as it hit the floor and rolled so it stared up at the redheaded succubus still held on her knees in front of Kefira.

  James still felt the succubus’ pull, but weaker now. “Release him, or I’ll follow through on my promise.”

  Black tears began to stream down her face. “I cannot. Do what you must, but even that is less than what my Master will do if I disobey him.”

  James sighed. He’d really hoped to scare her into compliance. He needed her alive to find out who hired her. He could bite her and force her to do his will, but he still wouldn’t be able to read her mind.

  Succubus blood, poisoned by decay, would instantly kill a lesser vampire or even disintegrate most being’s flesh. As an ancient, he was immune. But that didn’t mean he relished the thought of drinking in their foul tasting blood. However, he had to swallow some—make it part of him, if he was to control her mind.

  Steeling himself for the foul taste, he bent her head back at a cruel angle and struck fast and hard like a snake. The dark chunky fluid almost made him gag as it flowed over his tongue, but he forced his throat to swallow twice before he released her and let her fall limply to the floor.

  Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to see Odeda holding out a shot glass full of amber liquid and a bar towel.

  “A little Jack Daniel’s chaser to get the taste out of your mouth?” she asked with a knowing smirk.

  “Thanks,” he muttered as he wiped his mouth with the bar towel and then downed the whiskey. The burning of the alcohol disintegrated the foul taste of the blood, but still left him with the vampire version of heartburn as his body tried to assimilate the foul stuff.

  He turned to the remaining succubus and prodded her with the toe of his boot. “Release Logan,” he commanded. Immediately, the pull of the succubus subsided and he heard Logan’s sigh of relief, even from backstage.

  He turned to face the two sisters. “What happened?” he demanded. “How could you let Logan almost be killed?”

  Kefira stalked up to him, her full five-foot-five-inch frame vibrating with indignation. “You can take your questions and kiss my ass, James.” She poked a finger into his stomach for emphasis, which was at her chest height. “While we were here protecting Logan, you were off licking your wounds because Ariel pricked your immense vampire pride.”

  He opened his mouth to retort when he realized that arguing with Kefira, while satisfying, wouldn’t give him any answers about what happened. He took a deep breath and then tried again in a calmer voice. “My apologies for arriving late. But right now, I’m concerned about Logan. And if you tell me what happened, maybe I can help.”

  Kefira sniffed with obvious distain and glanced over at Odeda. After what he was sure was a mental conversation between the two sisters, Odeda nodded to Kefira.

  Kefira crossed her arms in front of her, fire still sparking in her gaze. “You’re going to have to quit disappearing. You miss what’s going on.”

  Odeda ignored Kefira and turned to James. “They targeted Logan specifically, so we couldn’t pick them out of the crowd until they turned on their sex-vibes.” She tossed her mane of wavy brown hair to get it out of her face and continued. “Then they rushed the stage and mobbed him. Ariel tried to pull him out from under them, but one of them bit him in the thigh before we got him free.”

  James nodded. “Why the thigh?” he asked more to himself than the sisters. “Succubus are terrific assassins because they know so much about human anatomy. But they never do anything without a purpose.”

  “The bitch bit him in his inferior gluteal artery.” Kefira broke in, her red brows drawn together, her lips thinned with temper. “He almost bled out before Dara could slow the bleeding.”

  James sighed. “But I don’t see what could be gained by hitting that artery—there are easier ones to puncture which will bleed out faster.”

  “You bit her.” Kefira pointed at the fallen succubus. “Can’t you pull the information out of her mind?”

  James shook his head in frustration. “That’s actually a myth we like to perpetuate, but it isn’t altogether true. I can control her—make her do what I want physically, but I can’t read her mind or make her tell me something she’s been ordered not to. That’s one of those vampire myths from the Count Dracula movies.”

  Odeda puffed o
ut a breath, which ruffled her hair. “Too bad we don’t have Count Dracula instead of you then. So, where does that leave us?”

  Kefira gasped. “Wait a minute.” She looked back and forth between them. “Ariel mentioned the vamp who controlled the zombies tried to strike at Logan’s groin, instead of his neck. So either that has some significance, or the whole supernatural world suddenly has a fetish for Logan’s crotch.”

  Odeda crossed her arms over her impressive cleavage. “I don’t see what they have to gain by attacking his Johnson.”

  James’ brows furrowed as an idea hit him that chilled him to the core. “Unless they are trying to keep him from reproducing, for some reason.”

  The three exchanged worried glances.

  Odeda looked down at the last living succubus. “After we put her on ice somewhere, we need to put in a call to Gabriel.”

  *****

  Astor, James’ vampire first lieutenant and company vice president looked up as James walked in through the large oak doors of his office. About time James decides to grace us with his presence.

  Aloud, he said, “James, so good to finally see you. We were beginning to think you’d abdicated your position.” James was the head of the Wellington Talent Agency, his entire vampire kiss employed in various, and sundry positions throughout the company. No better way to integrate into the human world than to hold the power of their entertainment.

  Nothing would make Astor happier than to have James step aside and leave everything to him. That was one of the reasons he’d taken this assignment in the first place.

  James glanced at Astor, clearly ignoring the jibe. “Where are the others?”

  Astor leaned back in his swivel chair and sighed. “Several are offsite meeting with clients. I’m here holding down the fort, and I’ve got an appointment this afternoon to meet with a new client.”

  “Good. So, things here are going smoothly?” James walked to the sidebar and poured two fingers of Jack Daniels into a glass.