Ghost Mortem (Bordertown Chronicle Book 1)

by Gavin Masters

  Then I heard Vikki sing.

  Now, remember when I told you I was instantly smitten the first time I met Vikki Valliant? Well, now I was instantly mesmerized—no—infatuated. She was like a siren, like a literal siren from the sirenum scopuli of Virgil and Ovid. She was like a literal, figurative siren.

  No offense to David Bowie—honestly, he's one of my heroes, and he's obviously one of Vikki's—but Vikki's version was somehow so much better. Maybe it was the energy onstage, or in the crowd. I hate that the great Ziggy Stardust passed away recently. One more person to mourn. One more person to honor in memory. I realized that, in her own way, much like the photo of her friend Stephanie in her wallet, or her mother's golden heart necklace, this was another way for Vikki to honor one of her departed heroes.

  I wondered, half-amused, if the real David Bowie might happen by. What would he think of Vikki's version? Would he be awed, flattered or humbled? Or all three?

  Watching Vikki up there, totally in her element, singing for all these people, I had to wonder about her career choice. Why on Earth would she become a beat cop, of all things, when she can sing like this? She looked almost angelic. I just wanted her more and more, seeing her like this.

  But then I realized something. Everyone loved her. The whole town. I saw so many eyes peering at her, looking happy, probably feeling much the way I felt. I realized she could have so many of the guys here if she wanted. What chance did a guy like me have? I shouldn't even want her. Not if I really like her. I should want her to have someone else. Someone good. Someone better than me. I just wish…I just wish I wasn't such a damn immature, barely employable man-child who has his foot in his mouth all the time.

  I was making myself antsy and angry, I realized. Maybe I just needed a smoke. Yeah, that would calm me down, I reasoned.

  I fished around in my pockets for my cigs, took one out and put it in my mouth. Then I fished around for my lighter.

  While I was about wrist deep in my pocket, I felt a slight pressure whisk past my face. Thinking nothing of it, I pulled out my Zippo, and proceeded to light the cigarette that…was no longer there. My cigarette was gone! I looked up and saw that damned tanuki above me, upside-down, his balls whirring around like propellers on a helicopter.

  “Son of a bitch!” I shouted.

  I began chasing the tanuki as he hovered higher and higher, out-of-reach. I tried pushing my way through a confounded crowd as the tanuki flew upwards and away.

  All I could do was stop there, panting, and shaking my fist at the sky, feeling like a cartoon character chasing that wascawwy wabbit.

  “I'll get you, tanuki!” I shouted. “If it's the last thing I do!”

  I put my hands on my knees, panting. I thought about taking out another cigarette, but instead, in my winded, agitated state, I had somehow thought better of it and changed my mind.

  Vikki was still singing. I wanted to enjoy that. So that's what I did.

  Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice my insane little outburst. She was in a zone of her own. God, it was like she was a born performer.

  Once Vikki finished her song, I cheered and applauded along with everyone else.

  Vikki handed the mic off, and came back my way, blushing and thanking the people that cheered as she moved past them.

  “You can…you can sing!” I stammered when she'd reached me.

  “Nothing gets past you, Sherlock,” she said.

  “Where did you learn to sing like that?”

  “Trained by years of working in dispatch,” she said, and smiled at me. “And the karaoke machine at the Roadhouse.”

  I could have kissed her right there. If only I somehow knew it was okay to. I've never crushed this hard over a girl before.

  “You can sing…” I said. “Why would you want to be a cop when you can sing like that?”

  She shrugged.

  “Maybe I wanted to be a cop,” she said. “You can shoot better than I can. You seem to want to chase bad guys. Why aren't you a cop?”

  I shrugged. “I'm too delicate for that.”

  Vikki laughed. She looked like she was going to say something else, but then we heard a female voice squeak on her walkie.

  “All units in the square, we’ve got a ten-sixty-three, possible pickpocket. Suspect is described as five-three to five-five, with snakes for hair. Request immediate dispatch. Over.”

  “Oh well. No rest for the wicked,” said Vikki. “Dispatch, this is Deputy Valliant. I’m on the scene at the center bar. No sign of suspect here. Will do a quick perimeter sweep. Over.”

  “Did she just say 'snakes for hair'?” I asked. “Like…stone-turning gorgon stare…type…snakes for hair?”

  “Relax, Gavin. Don't look so freaked out. It's probably just a Samhain costume.”

  “What if it's not, Vikki? What if it's fucking Medusa? I'm not just going to stand idly while you get turned to stone.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Relax, Gavin. It's not Medusa. We don't have any gorgons living in Bordertown, all right? Just stay put. I'll be right back.”

  Vikki got up and began to move through the crowd.

  I watched Vikki go. Then my eyes began to wander. I began to scan the crowd myself. It wasn't long before I spied a really sexy, bikini-clad woman, about five-foot-three by my estimation, with snakes for hair. What was more, she was making eyes with several men in groups as she bumped through them. Then she seemed to lean in and whisper sweet nothings in their ears. While she did so, she was pulling out their wallets and slipping them into her purse.

  Sneaky, sexy little bitch…

  “Hey!” I shouted towards the stunning gorgon—whom Vikki had assured me couldn't possibly be a gorgon.

  The gorgon turned.

  She and I locked eyes.

  My first thought was: Oh shit, am I about to die?

  But no. Instead, I found that she was—I swear to god—the most beautiful creature I'd ever laid eyes upon! Everything about her screamed sex—no, demanded to be idolized. Worshiped. Served unquestioningly. Before I knew what was going on, I was out of my seat and making my way to the beguiling gorgon.

  The singers onstage had moved on to another duet. This time, it was “Earth Angel.” You know, from Back to the Future. There was a definite 1980s nostalgia theme going on here tonight. Of course, that particular song was itself 1950s nostalgia…

  “Gavin, don't,” I vaguely heard Vikki cry out of my periphery. “Don't look her in the eyes.”

  But it was too late. Medusa's gaze had me ensnared, and if I was to be turned to stone, so be it. I'd die happy and in love with this gorgeous gorgon!

  “Hey! She took my wallet,” cried a male voice. “Stop! Thief!”

  Another man had tried to grab her by the hair, but she ducked out of it, and he was left with a fistful of snakes, which he promptly leapt away from, shrieking, and let drop to the ground.

  The young gorgon did a cartwheel and smiled impishly. She dashed out through the crowd, towards the nearest way out. Which was apparently toward me.

  “She's getting away,” came another voice. “Someone stop her!”

  I snapped somewhat out of my trance. I wasn’t really sure what to do at this point, so I stood there, and spread my arms and legs as a sumo wrestler might, or a soccer goalie. I hoped the sight of me like this would deter the escape of this gorgon. I now realized she probably wasn't a gorgon, because the snake hair was gone. Now she had fiery red hair, and sticking out of her hair were two horns. Her eyes appeared to dance with an eerie red light.

  “Hey, listen, um…” I stammered.

  I stopped as the red-haired, red-eyed beauty looked me deeply into my eyes. She was so pretty! I suddenly just wanted nothing more that to protect her, and hold her. Come what may, I would protect this beautiful creature from all who would seek to cause her harm!

  “Protect me,” she said.

  “Sure,” I said. “Anything. What do you need?”

  She came up to me, so close I was
almost drunk at the sight of her slender, curvaceous, perfect bikini-clad body. I just wanted to touch her. To smell her. To taste her. To serve her unquestioningly.

  The vexatious vixen moved in closer. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to kiss her, and tell her how beautiful she was. She was more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen—more beautiful than the goddess Venus herself.

  “Gavin, stay away from her! She's a succubus!” Vikki cried.

  I wanted to. Believe me, Vikki, I tried. But she was so…beguilingly and bewitchingly beautiful!

  Like two polarized magnets, the succubus's body and mine were together. She was in my arms, and I was kissing her lips.

  The succubus pulled away and giggled.

  I felt so helpless there. I wanted her so badly, but I didn’t know how to deserve her. I just had to do whatever she needed me to do and then maybe one day I’d be worthy of—

  With a mischievous bite of her lower lip, and without any warning, the succubus slammed her knee up into my crotch. She giggled and frolicked away as I collapsed to the ground, clutching my ever-loving balls, which were now exploding with pain.

  A moment later, she was almost to the street, and I was vaguely aware of another figure in a red cape making a beeline for her and then tackling her.

  I looked up and saw the two hottest girls I'd ever seen fighting on the ground. The bikini-clad succubus with the horns, and a beautiful blonde in a red cape. One was on top of the other. The blonde one…Vikki…Yes! Duh! It was Vikki!

  And it was like I was truly seeing Vikki for the first time.

  Vikki’s so pretty. She's perfect. I have to tell her. Now. I need to make her mine.

  I swooned and yearned for Vikki. Even though my balls still hurt like a motherfucker.

  Vikki managed to pin the succubus. She handcuffed her, and then hauled the bikini-clad, horned red-head to her feet. She put a bag over her head and tied it off with a police tie, presumably so the succubus couldn’t beguile anyone else, before handing her to two other male B.T.P.D. officers who'd just made it onto the scene. At least I think they were male. I really couldn't focus on them. For all I knew, one of them might have been my dad. My eyes kept wandering back to Vikki and her adorable little waist, and her eminently kissable face…

  Once Vikki was satisfied the perp was under control, she left the two male officers to it, and came back toward me. She knelt down next to me.

  I was sitting up too at this point, both hands cupped protectively over my aching groin, my hands being about as useful in this task as shutting the barn door after all the livestock had already fled.

  “Are you okay?” Vikki asked.

  Her voice was cloyingly sweet.

  Even being this close to her was strengthening me somehow. My body seemed to be flooding with—almost bursting with—endorphins.

  “Yeah, just give me a minute,” I said.

  She put a hand on my shoulder. I felt a strange surge of electricity travel through my whole body. Not a literal surge, like from a Taser. It felt like more of the variety where a really pretty girl touches you, and you suddenly get goose bumps, and then feel rock hard in your pants.

  “I'm just a fool. A fool in love…with you…” continued the singer onstage.

  Suddenly, my balls felt fine. Heck, great even! They didn’t hurt at all, and I wanted to grab Vikki by her way-too-pretty goddamn face and kiss her like she was the only oxygen mask on a depressurized airplane. Her adorable, heterochromatic eyes gazed into mine, and at that moment, I could see the blood rushing to her face.

  I pulled Vikki in toward me with both hands.

  As I pulled, she seemed to pull back.

  We kissed violently on the ground while a whole bunch of people just stared. We didn't care; we just couldn’t get enough of each other.

  We kissed like that for maybe a minute or so before I spoke up.

  “I want to take you home and fuck you on my bed and see what kinds of beautiful sounds you make.”

  “Fuck, can we please?” Vikki replied, smiling and panting excitedly.

  I think we pretty much sprinted home at this point, hand-in-hand, almost like a couple of drunken tri-athletes, still convinced, despite our intoxication, that we could win that gold medal.

  I shoved Vikki against the front door of my house. We kissed more. I didn't let her go until she managed to turn the handle behind her and let herself in.

  Then, biting her lower lip, Vikki grabbed my collar and pulled me inside with her. She slammed the door, spun me around and threw me onto the couch. Then she ripped—not just unbuttoned, but like some kind of she-hulk actually ripped—the top of her police uniform off. Then she ripped off her pants. Then off came the socks and shoes, leaving herself in just her bra and panties.

  “I want you to fuck me, Gavin,” she said. “Fuck me every way you want in every room of this house.”

  “I’ll do any goddamn thing you want,” I said, scrambling to take off my own clothes.

  Things after that are a bit of a blur. I have a vague memory of fucking her on top of the couch. And fucking her doggy style in the kitchen. And fucking her missionary style in my bed. I’m pretty sure we had a steamy shower together too. We must have tried every position in the book. At some point, I remember one of us getting the idea of doing it in alliterations. Missionary in the master bedroom. Cunnilingus in the kitchen. Cock-sucking in the closet. Blowjob in the bathroom. Bondage in the basement. Blowjob with bondage in the bedroom—I guess in our ecstatic desperation we were having too much trouble coming up with more stuff for the letter 'B', so we repeated some. Or I just really like blowjobs. I can’t really rule that one out. Her handcuffs got used a lot. I won’t say on whom. Actually, I’ve got distinct memories of us taking turns.

  The clearest memory I have of that torrid night was something beyond my comprehension. Vikki had me handcuffed to the headboard of my bed, and she was on top of me, cowgirl style.

  “Are you close?” Vikki asked.

  “So very close,” I said.

  She bit her lip.

  “Gavin, I want to try something.”

  “Do it,” I said. “I can't stop you. Do anything you want.”

  “Okay, just…tell me if you need me to stop.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  Somehow, Vikki slowed down time.

  I proceeded to have an orgasm that felt like it lasted an hour.

  “How are you doing thus?” I asked.

  “I'm magical,” she said, smiling sweetly. Biting her lip. Gazing into my eyes with her one green and one blue.

  She really was magical.

  I’m not really sure what came over us exactly that night. It felt so wrong, and yet so right, all at the same time.

  Finally, after what must have been hours but felt like days of ecstatic lovemaking, we passed out together, completely depleted, in my bed.

  Chapter 30

  I awoke some hours later, in my bed, on my back. Vikki was nestled up to me, her head resting on my chest. At first, it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world. I pulled her in just a little more tightly. I kissed the top of her pretty blond head. Then I started to remember the night before, and then I started to think.

  God, what if Raven or my father was home? Surely they’d both have to be home by now. How long had Vikki and I been at it? How many times had we done it? How loud had we been? How much of a mess had we made? Also—and this was getting alarming too—I don’t remember using a condom. At all. And we must have fucked upwards of half a dozen times. That’s really not like me. I didn’t imagine it was much like Vikki either. This image in my head I had of her, well…Vikki just wasn’t that kind of girl. And I'm just not that kind of guy, come to think of it.

  Well, okay, who am I kidding? Maybe I am. Maybe I have been known to sleep with a lot of women. I must have gone through half the girls on Tinder back in Regina. The arm I had wrapped around Vikki had gone numb, so I started trying to wriggle it free.

  Onc
e I got my arm out from under her, I sat up.

  Vikki stirred, then smiled at me.

  “Mmm, come back to bed,” she said. “It’s too early.”

  Then Vikki closed her dreamy green-and-blue eyes.

  Then they shot open again. Vikki sprang upright in bed, and looked at me, wide-eyed and rudely cognizant. She tried to get her hands in front of her, but the handcuffs clinked. We both simultaneously realized her hands were still cuffed behind her. Vikki looked back at her cuffed hands, then her own naked body, then mine. Then her eyes met mine.

  “Oh god! Gavin, what did we do last night?”

  “I’m wondering if a simpler question is what didn’t we do?”

  “Anal? I’m pretty sure I would never do anal. Oh, god, we didn’t do anal, did we?”

  I thought about that alliteration game. Anal in the attic? Well, we didn’t have an attic. Not the kind you could fit two people screwing in, anyway. Besides, I’m pretty sure I heard bats up there earlier this week.

  “I don't know,” I said. “Does your ass hurt?”

  She seemed to shift about thoughtfully for a moment.

  “No,” she said. “Does yours?”

  “No,” I said. “Wait, what would you even put—you know what? Let's not go there. Literally or figuratively. I’m pretty sure we didn’t do that, no.”

  “Good,” she said. “That’s my hard limit.”

  I squinted at her. “What?”

  She got a sudden look of horror on her face.

  “Oh god…” she said.

  “What?”

  Vikki looked up at me, looking extra vulnerable with her hands locked behind her.

  “Gavin, did I…did I use my magic on you.”

  I smiled at her. “You worked all kinds of magic on me.”

  “No, I mean…did I…?”

  I remember the hour-long orgasm she gave me. Something that normally shouldn't be possible. I'd thought for a while she had me handcuffed there that I'd go made from the longest, most intense orgasm I'd ever felt. That wasn't normal. That had to be supernatural.

  “You gave me an orgasm that lasted a whole hour. You mean that kind of magic?”

  “Fuck,” she said. “Fucking succubus. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Gavin, we need to fix this.”