The Case of the Parisian Vendetta: A Mark Julian Vampire PI Mystery #10 (Mark Julian Vampire PI Mysteries)

by L. G. Fabbo-Gonnella

  Jean-Claude’s body had registered the stimulation even as his mind fixated on breaking through the drugged haze that had enveloped it.

  The man grinned as he next unbuckled the werewolf’s belt. “Let’s see what charmed all those ladies you fucked throughout the years, huh fur-ball,” he snickered as he proceeded to fully expose Jean-Claude’s genitals. “Oh my what have we here?” he teased as he reached down and expertly started the process of masturbating the werewolf.

  A soft gasp of no came out of Jean-Claude’s mouth. His eyes began to slightly lose their distinctly glassy look even as the various erogenous zones within him were being exploited. “No,” he quietly sputtered in protest even as he became slightly erect. His brain refused to be diverted from its task of breaking past the effects of the drug. He unconsciously allowed his body to simply respond to the physical manipulation it was receiving so he could concentrate on clearing his mind.

  “Good doggie,” the pudgy aide chuckled not realizing that werewolf’s physical reaction was not a signal he was enjoying their contacts. In fact Jean-Claude’s underlying disgust over the older vampire’s physical assault was feeding energy into his mental combat with the drug’s properties. The aide stopped his actions then quickly striped off his clothes. After that he efficiently got the young werewolf fully undressed as well. His beady eyes greedily took in the sight of the well-muscled Jean-Claude’s naked torso slumped in his executive chair. “I’ve wanted you ever since I first saw you years ago as a teenager. I bet you didn’t you know that,” the aide hissed at his prey as he pushed the werewolf’s powerful thighs apart to get a better view of all of Jean-Claude’s sexual equipment. He let his fingertips run along the soft skin of Jean-Claude’s inner thighs before once more briefly fondling the werewolf’s family jewels. “So handsome and sexual. Now I will have you. Fully have you at last!” He let his fingertips explore all of Jean-Claude’s sexual organs for a bit more before stopping his activity. The pudgy man proceeded to touch himself, stroking his own erection while contemplating the nude defined body of the powerful werewolf lying exposed in front of him.

  An increasingly less bleary eyed Jean-Claude just lay back in his chair completely unresponsive to the vampire’s words. He could feel the haziness inside his head being dissipated.

  “All the girls and later the women who swarmed over you. I’ve dreamed about sexually taking you just like you took them. Oh you seem to have gone soft. Well let’s correct that shall we?” The aide growled as he reached down to again start to masturbate the werewolf.

  “No,” the drugged up Jean-Claude moaned. Memories of the Strega sexually abusing him now flared into his mind. His brain reengaged with his body. “I said no,” Jean-Claude unexpectedly yelled as he roughly pushed the aide’s hand away. He struggled to lift his powerful body upward from the chair. “Leave me alone,” he muttered as he continued his effort to fight his way back to reality. More images of the Strega flashed in his brain. “Get … away … get off me you witch,” he growled. Through sheer force of will, the still groggy werewolf managed to get to his feet. He stood before the aide trying to focus on him. “Get … away,” he slurred to the fuzzy figure in front of him.

  “No,” the stunned aide shouted as he saw the possibility of his plans going awry. He angrily pushed the still swaying and vulnerable werewolf back into his chair. As he fell, Jean-Claude missed his chair and instead hit his head on the side of the desk. The hard blow stunned him. Seeing his chance, the aide used his vampire strength to easily pull the dazed and still drug weakened werewolf’s body from the floor and back into his chair. The aide then quickly leaned down to firmly grasp each of Jean-Claude’s ankles and raise them into the air in a way that would permit him to anally assault his victim. Jean-Claude’s upper body was now lying on the seat of his chair with his legs held aloft by the desperate aide. The vampire moved the squirming werewolf’s strong legs apart. “I cannot be denied. I am going to screw you or die in the attempt!” he yelled he prepared to rape a now increasing uncooperative Jean-Claude.

  “Well as long as you’ve mentioned a choice then let’s take door number two shall we,” a chillingly familiar Spanish accented voice said from behind the aide.

  The aide immediately dropped Jean-Claude’s legs and turned to face his master. The werewolf slipped off the chair. His head violently hit the floor temporarily knocking him out cold.

  Tortego silently took in the scene. His thin ascetic face grew red with anger. “You dare,” he softly said in a voice that was filled with a barely suppressed rage. “You sodomite. You dare to try to … rape him! If I had not suddenly suspected something and come back to see how you were doing.” He stopped and composed himself. “Re-dress him at once. We will leave him alone in his office and let the drug naturally wear off. I will tell others he is getting some badly needed sleep and is not to be disturbed.” The former Inquisitor walked over to examine Jean-Claude. The werewolf was beginning to come too. Still, with no further sexual assault occurring, the werewolf’s brain had relaxed in its struggles letting the drug’s effects once more gain the upper hand. When Jean-Claude opened his eyes, they were once more unfocused. “Thank Jesu he is still out-of-it,” Tortego grunted. He faced the aide. “You heard me you sodomite. Get him dressed at once while I watch. One overtly sexual move by you in any way even in the slightest degree and I will rip you to shreds at once!”

  The aide quickly complied and efficiently got the werewolf back into his clothes.

  “I’m going to give him another dose of drugs and hopefully when he awakes he will not recall what you tried to do,” Tortego angrily told the quivering aide. “You ever try something like this again or even get within five feet of him and...” he paused confident he did not need to say more to the man. Tortego gave Jean-Claude another drink of the laced wine and waited until the werewolf again passed out. “After today, make sure his morning coffee has the correct amount of the drug in it,” an irate Tortego told his aide. “Each morning I will set it out for you to slip into his drink. Remember to only use that quantity. This is highly addictive you idiot. The more one consumes of it the more the user craves. Thanks to your overuse on him today his body will now need higher levels and in shorter time frames. Our old pattern of doping him only on the days of his meetings with me will no longer suffice. You’ve screwed up the levels I set out for use on him. We must now make sure he is consuming a sufficient quantity every day from now on to keep his cravings at bay and induce a mild euphoria in him. We’ve turned him into an addict or soon will do it.”

  “I’m sorry please don’t punish me,” the quivering aide pathetically begged. “I couldn’t help myself. He is to blame too for ...” he saw Tortego’s eyes blacken and his fangs appear. The now terrified man stopped speaking.

  “Do not ever justify this action by saying it was his fault you couldn’t control yourself. By the saints I should butcher you right now simply for making that statement.” The priest paused, sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them again they were clear. “I still have need of you,” he angrily relied. “If I did not you’d be dead. But by the Lord if you try anything with him you in the future you will pay for it. Let’s go,” the vampire snarled as he briskly strode to leave Jean-Claude’s office. After two hours a very woozy Jean-Claude awoke on the couch in his office. He had a hazy memory of the recent events but he just brushed it off as a bizarre nightmare that contained elements of his past. He got up and went home unaware of his close escape from a sexual violation. Subconsciously however his brain had been imprinted with everything that had happened. The memory flickered there waiting to catch fire.

  First Steps In The Road

  A day later, Mark finally made the call to Jaime. He found that she was delighted to meet with him. They arranged to have an accidental encounter the day after tomorrow in Bryant Park. Mark spent the time until then searching for the security leak without success. On the day of their scheduled meeting he put all thoughts of the investigation on the
back burner of his mind.

  Arriving early, Mark sat at a table in the park watching the passing tourists who strolled up from the Times Square area heading towards the city’s famed Fifth Avenue. Mark smiled as he drank his espresso. His mind wandered back in time recalling images of when this park was a hellish place that was fit only for drug dealers and whores. Once known as Needle Park for its brisk heroin trade, it had undergone a dramatic restoration beginning in the late seventies. Now it was an oasis of green in Midtown. Its kiosks and pavilions welcomed visitors who enjoyed having a beautiful setting to have a bite to eat or just sit and enjoy the sun. Even its public restrooms were an object of praise for their cleanliness.

  Mark pondered over how the city had changed over the years. True quite a few residents grumbled over the “Disneyfication” of 42nd Street but Mark did not number himself among them. True, he did sometimes say to Vinnie that he “missed the mud,” using that French phrase to explain his occasional longing for Midtown’s seedier but equally colorful old times.

  “Yeah well I don’t,” Vinnie would always reply. “I heard about the wild days there when I was a kid. When I was growing up my mom worried about me being snatched by some nameless guy who would bring me to Midtown Manhattan and sell me to some sexual molester.”

  “Now that role is one I fulfill,” Mark would snicker before he groped Vinnie.

  Still, many of his vampire friends agreed with Mark on that mud point but for different reasons. They longed for the old days when they could walk among the dark denizens of the old Forty-Second Street crowd and take in the world of the demi-monde. What they really missed was the high they received when they sipped off the druggie clientele that inhabited the run-down porn theaters that once thrived on that street. As once haughty Grande Dame of New York City’s elite vampire set said with a tone of disdain, “no one cared who you drank in those places and quite frankly what difference did it make to the humans we found. After all those people went in those tawdry theaters to loose some type of fluid anyway.”

  Mark was still daydreaming when he heard one young businessman turn to his friend and say. “Whoa check out the cute little number that just walked into the park. Damn she is carrying a kid. The best one’s are always are taken.”

  Mark glanced over towards the object of the young man’s disappointment and was pleased to see it was Jaime. The five foot seven, shape-shifter sex demon was dressed casually for their encounter. Keeping to her stylistic preferences she wore an outfit that consisted of a 1940’s era high-waist brown slacks along with a plain peter pan collared white blouse. Mark noticed quite a few women in the park looking at Jaime and nodded with approval.

  “Mark I’ve missed you,” she instantly said as she sat down next to him. Her green eyes sparkled. Her son, a gurgling Andre, was happily strapped in front of her in some type of carrying device. “He misses his godparent too,” Jaime laughed as Andre reached out towards Mark while cooing in a way that baby’s do when amused by something they see in front of them.

  The vampire grinned and leaned forward to kiss both of them. As he sat back he could help but notice that they were not alone. Off at a tactful distance he saw Brian and Nancy. The two were assigned to the security forces of the city’s supernatural government. He gave Jaime a puzzled look. She glanced over her shoulder to ascertain what he had observed. Once she had done so, she turned her face back to him and smiled. “They are here because of this war. Jean-Claude insists I have bodyguards when I go about the city. He worries I will be attacked, assassinated or taken by kidnappers sent from Paris.” Her face grew tense. “I wish I could say he was being foolish but rumors have reached us that Andre might be a target of...” she stopped and leaned her head down to kiss her son’s head. “A son for a son,” she softly murmured.

  A shocked look came over Mark’s face followed quickly by a building anger. “If anyone ... I would gather my vampire friends ...there wouldn’t be a Roué alive in Paris.”

  Jaime gazed tenderly at him. “Well it’s only rumor. Let us not talk about this right now. You asked to see me and here I am. Do not worry my protectors will gossip about this meeting. I particularly chose those two to guard Andre and myself. They know you and like you. You can trust they will be very discreet about what they officially observe today. By the way, they are due to get married once the war is over. Once the war is over, those words sound so nice. When can we return to those days,” Jaime wistfully added.

  Mark grinned and nodded at the two security officers who smiled and returned the greeting before getting quickly back to their duty. They made an attractive couple and an unusual one considering Brian was a werewolf while Nancy, his shorter fiancé, was a vampire.

  ****

  “So this meeting between them has to be a hopeful sign don’t you think?” a sunglasses clad Brian said as he glanced at Jaime and Mark for a brief second before he resumed scanning for anyone who might pose a potential danger to Jaime.

  “Sweet goddess I hope so,” Nancy, who also wore sunglasses, replied as she too returned her focus upon the crowds. “Those guys need to kiss and make-up. I’m happy those two are talking but I frankly wish our charge had picked a less open spot for a reconciliation. Too many people milling about to watch.”

  “Yeah to both statements. Still, with you here with me on this protection detail, it’s all good,” he lightly replied. He flashed a grin at her then returned to his visual checking of anyone coming into or exiting from an imaginary security perimeter surrounding Jaime. Both he and Nancy would have preferred to also be stationed closer to her. Unfortunately she had insisted on privacy for her talk with Mark. Though they did not show it, both were not totally comfortable about their distance from her. “Woman on the right coming in towards them,” he softly stated.

  “See her. I will fix eyes on her. You take the couple with the child coming over on your right,” she responded.

  “Check,” he murmured as his reflexes tightened. Minutes later both of them relaxed. The people were no danger and had simply strolled by Jaime and Mark.

  “So you want to order take out when we get home?” Brian inquired as he casually adjusted his sunglasses.

  “Sounds like a plan honey,” Nancy responded as she visually cruised the others in her line of site.

  “Love you,” Brian quietly said. “Just felt like saying it.” He too focused his attention elsewhere.

  “Same here babe,” Nancy muttered. “Sex tonight,” she said as her vision fixated on another man strolling by Jaime and Mark. Her senses went back on alert.

  “Yeah for sure,” Brian softly replied as his eyes continually swept the area for any dangers that might arise.

  “By the way, how do we write our report about this day,” she asked.

  “Officially we accompanied our charge shopping and maintained surveillance for trouble while she met for coffee with some friend. Privately we inform Julio exactly who the friend was today. This way he is in the loop but keeps this information from any unauthorized prying eyes at headquarters.”

  “You are so hot when you are acting the cool security professional,” Nancy said with no trace of emotion either on her face or in the tone of her voice. “I could throw you on the ground right now and screw your brains out.”

  “I feel the same way about you when you’re flashing the I’m-all-business attitudes,” Brian replied with an equally unemotional voice though, he did briefly display an almost imperceptible the hint of a grin. “Three coming to their left. Looks okay but let’s stay alert partner.”

  “Eyes on them,” Nancy stated as she focused on the people.

  As the two security bodyguards continued their mission of protection. Make and Jaime were conducting their own business conversation.

  ****

  “So, tell me what is it that made you finally reach out?” Jaime asked as she sat and gazed into Mark’s eyes. “It must be something that is bothering you. I can see it in your face as well as sense it in the emotional vibes you are
giving off right now with me.”

  Mark shook his head and lightly laughed. “Sex demons. You guys have a head start on the rest of us when it comes to detecting strong feelings in others.” His features then grew somber. “Tortego and Jean-Claude’s sudden closeness,” he muttered.

  Jaime dejectedly sighed. “I thought it was going to be about that matter.” She tenderly glanced at Andre who was now peacefully slumbering. “Tell me what you know or think you know on this issue,” she said as she lightly stroked her sleeping son’s hair.

  Mark took a deep breath and told her everything on his mind. When he was done he gazed at Jaime. “Well?” He asked in a concerned voice.

  “Mark,” Jaime softly replied. “When Jean-Claude endorsed that death sentence on his cousin a part of him died inside.” Mark was about to reply but Jaime raised her hand to stop him. “Sebastian was a cold-hearted killer. Trust me when I assure you I never had any doubts he committed a murder in Central Park though, in the matter of that Roman’s death, that was probably not the case.”