She grabbed the hand Andreas wound around her waist, twisting and turning until they stood staring eye to eye with one another. In the same instant, Eva slammed her fist into his solar plexus and followed it up with a round house kick that sent him flying halfway across the room.
“Beautiful and deadly. That’s quite a combination. But you’re crazy if you think I’m going to fight a woman.” Andreas’s expression remained smug as he found his balance and wiped the blood that dripped from his bottom lip. Eva didn’t let him off the hook so easily.
She rushed him with fists flying. The vampire refused to fight back, blocking her powerful blows with swift precision. He met each one of her punches with a defensive move so graceful and effective; he barely seemed to move at all.
“Fight back, you bastard!” Eva roared at him, blood pumping even quicker through her veins as the adrenaline kicked in. Furious, she pulled a stake from the holster strapped to her thigh-length boot and charged at him. Andreas dodged the weapon. He bobbed and weaved like a prize fighter. His skill as a warrior truly impressed her.
Ruthless in her assault, Eva’s spike hit its target and embedded itself above his right shoulder blade. It wasn’t a killing move. Nonetheless, Andreas’s mouth gaped open as his pale-grey shirt stained with blood.
He looked down at the wound, stepped toward her, and flattened his hand to the center of her chest. Andreas shoved her body back until it met with the ice-cold glass of the window pane. The cool sensation hit her thighs, in opposition to the feverish wave the vampire ignited inside her. She stared at him, and felt her nipples bead expectantly.
Andreas’s eye color changed from deep green to crimson red.
Eva watched as his anger bubbled its way to the surface. He snatched her up by the neck with one hand and squeezed her windpipe. She struggled for air. She gulped and wheezed as she waited for her flailing body to go limp. After several tenuous moments, Andreas flexed the muscles in his hand, then eased his grip on her throat. He slammed his eyes shut as if deliberating her fate, inching closer.
“You smell so sweet. Like gardenias. I wonder if you taste just as delectable?” Andreas snarled between clenched teeth. Pressed up against him, she once again felt his erection, thick and rigid along her pelvic bone. He groaned and the sound reverberated in her ear. The perfect mixture of lust and contempt. Andreas lowered his head farther and came into contact with Eva’s pulsating vein. She shuttered in response as he lifted his head and smiled, revealing his blood-stained fangs.
Andreas’s red-tinged canines prompted Eva to react. In one fluid motion, she lifted her right leg and kneed him directly between his legs. Andreas fell to his knees, hunched over in agony, and Eva wasted no time. She shielded her face, kicked out the picture window behind her, and jumped to safety. She plunged three floors below and landed with a thud into the back of a dump truck filled with sand.
“Ouch. That hurt like hell.” Eva grabbed a hold of her throbbing ankle as the truck slowly rolled away. She groaned and left The Crypt in the dust as the truck drove back to headquarters.
“Kristopolous will pay for that! Just as soon as I’m able to walk again.”
Chapter Two
Game On
Oliver Polinski emanated a sort of eccentric sophistication rarely observed in modern culture. As counsel general in charge of the New York City division of BPA, he was the ultimate authority on all things supernatural. Sporting an argyle print bowtie and suspender-clad tweed trousers, Oliver looked more like an overweight college professor nearing retirement. In some respects, that’s exactly what he was. Most people expected this senior citizen with graying hair and wire-rimmed glasses to be refined and well-education. But they wouldn’t expect him to be able to exorcise demons or communicate with the dead. Ironically, he could do all these things and more.
Oliver cocked his head and shot Eva a disapproving glare as she limped over to the nearest chair and plopped down. Conscious of his stare, she tried to avert his attention from her obvious injuries.
“Oliver, listen. As far as I can tell, that place is clean.
Kristopolous has been very careful about not leaving any incriminating evidence inside his night club. If we’re ever gonna get anything on him, it’ll be inside that ginormous mansion he owns in the Connecticut suburbs.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, dear.” He narrowed his gaze on her and frowned, speaking in that condescending tone she recognized so well. His voice still held onto its thick, eastern European accent she’d become accustomed to. Oliver was born in Poland. His father came from Jewish ancestry, and the family had no choice but to flee their homeland in the midst of Hitler’s reign. In an unfortunate twist of fate, they were persecuted for far more than their religious beliefs.
Oliver’s mother, Svetlana, descended from a long line of Romanian gypsies gifted with the ability to read minds and sometimes, foretell events well before they occurred. Oliver Polinski inherited those talents from his mother. He was a gifted seer with a powerful connection to the supernatural world. His parents assumed that the family would be safe staying with relatives in Leningrad; not realizing that the monster known as Adolf Hitler would soon take over nearly the entire European continent before he was stopped. Of course, Eva was hesitant to give him all the juicy details of her first meeting with Andreas Kristopolous. So what if she told Oliver nearly everything. Some secrets weren’t meant to be shared, even with your best friend.
“What then? What are you worried about?” Eva rubbed the back of her neck to release the tension.
“My God, girl, look at yourself! You’ve got cuts up and down your arm. You’re hobbling around, favoring your right leg. What the hell happened in that club?” The worry lines etched in Oliver’s face were a dead giveaway. She’d been caught red-handed. Damn it!
“Oh that!” Eva shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as if her injuries were of no consequence. “Well, it’s really quite an interesting story. I was checking out Mr. Kristopolous’s office. Looking through desk drawers and trying, unsuccessfully I might add, to hack into his computer. That’s when I came across a rather intriguing tidbit about our vampire friend. He likes books! I mean, he’s into really old books worth a small fortune. He collects them in fact—”
“Eva, what does that have to do with anything, and how does it explain your injuries?” Oliver rolled his eyes, his patience clearly wearing thin. Eva winced. She expected him to unleash the full wrath of his temper. “You know what a bookworm I am, right? Especially when it comes to the classics.” “Yes, and?” Oliver crossed his arms over his chest and waited anxiously for her to continue her explanation. “So while I was flipping through his pristine first edition of Wuthering Heights, the bastard had the audacity to sneak up and take me by surprise.” Eva refused to look Oliver in the eye as she explained how Andreas caught her snooping around his office. She was a perfectionist. So naturally, she had a hard time admitting she’d been duped by a vampire.
Oliver opened his mouth wide, shock and surprise splashed all over his normally-refined features. “You mean he caught you in his office?”
“Yep. We played a game of ‘You kick my ass, and I’ll kick yours,’ for a while. Then he tried to bite me in the jugular.” Eva’s matter-of-fact demeanor downplayed the seriousness of the situation.
Unfortunately, Oliver didn’t seem to buy it.
On the contrary, his eyebrows shot up, and his ears peaked in interest. “What’d you do then?”
“I kneed him in the balls and jumped out the window. Luckily, I’d had enough foresight to ask the driver to park the dump truck below Kristopolous’s third story office window.” Oliver shifted in his chair uncomfortably. “Hmmm. That certainly changes things. By now, he’s probably already figured out who are you and where you work by viewing the club’s security footage. Remember, my dear, he’s a man of many resources.” Oliver made a good point. Andreas had more than enough power and money to make her pay for treading on his territory. “I know. I
thought of that, too. So it looks like we’re going to have to come up with a whole new game plan. He will definitely be able to identify me in the future. I won’t be able to set foot in The Crypt again.”
The right side of Oliver’s jaw twitched. A tell-tale sign the conversation had him on pins and needles. “Any suggestions?”
“Well, I would say ‘let’s go for the star-struck girl enamored by the wealthy playboy.’ But in this case, I’m not sure he’d buy the fact that a huntress, employed by BPA, would willingly fall head over heels for a vampire.” It seemed rather far-fetched for a smart, calculating master of manipulation like Andreas to get caught in such an obvious web of deceit, even if she was the one weaving it.
Oliver remained speechless for a brief moment. His silent contemplation made Eva antsy. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other. His mouth formed into an enormous grin. The smile, however, never reached his eyes. Definitely not a good sign.
“Actually, if we play it off like you’re merely working a routine investigation, let’s say for a recently deceased human, it might just work.” She saw the wheels in his mind visibly spin.
“I’m not sure I follow.”
Oliver stared at Eva incredulously as if she were the one who could read minds. “You know what I’m alluding to. Follow him around a bit. Break into his office. Maybe even his home, although that may be a little too risky considering the number of vampires rumored to be living at his compound.” “You’ve still got me confused. What I am missing here?” The hair on the back of Eva’s neck rose on end as Oliver stood, pacing the room. Familiar as she was with her boss’s idiosyncrasies, she knew he’d seen more about what transpired in Kristopolous’s office than he let on. Without a doubt, her psychic best friend had just read her mind.
Oliver came around to Eva’s left side, putting his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of concern. “Now, Eva, you of all people are aware of my gifts. There is great chemistry between you and Mr.
Kristopolous. You are drawn to each other in an almost animalistic way. And that, my dear, is what we’re going to use to lure in the big fish.” So he wanted her to pour on the sex appeal? And here she thought she’d be able to use her keen intellect to crack this case. Fat chance!
****
“Natasha, please come in and sit down.” Andreas ushered his head of security into the room, careful not to brush up against her bare shoulders with his clammy palms. He fidgeted, his body wrought with palpable tension. Finding someone snooping around in his office had freaked him out a bit. The fact that the prowler was a sexy little vixen with a smoking-hot body didn’t help the situation much either. Andreas spent a small fortune on security, but the woman rendered his security forces completely useless. Who knows if it would happen again? This time, a beautiful woman got past their defenses. Next time, they may not be so lucky. Things needed to change. Quickly.
“Bobby said you were looking for me. He mentioned something about a security breech last night and, come to think of it, you do seem a tad preoccupied. What happened?” As the head of security for the Kristopolous family, Natasha knew the ins and outs of AK Oil International like the back of her hand. Andreas paid her well. A ridiculous sum of money, not only to safeguard his own well-being, but to anticipate potential danger to his family and its business assets. His uneasiness a living, breathing entity in the room, Natasha was sure to pick up on it. After working together for more than a hundred years, they’d learn to read each other’s emotions rather well. A statuesque red-head standing nearly six feet tall, Natasha was a force to be reckoned with. Hidden beneath her coy smile and voluptuous curves, a hunter waited to strike. With speed and agility as sharp as an eagle, no wonder Andreas trusted her at his back. But tonight, he could cut the tension in the room with a knife, and Natasha had to feel it. She seemed a bit off-kilter. But truth be told, when Andreas was pissed off, everybody’s mood suffered.
“Yes, I want to see last night’s surveillance videos from about midnight on. Have them brought up to me right away. That’s all you need to know.” Andreas snapped at her, clenching his teeth as he tried to control his fury. Always cool under pressure, Natasha noticeably winced at his abrasive tone. He made it a point not to lash out at his staff. It was even more unusual for him to show any anger toward Natasha. She’d earned his trust and respect. Without her, the family business wouldn’t run nearly as smoothly as it had for the last twenty-five years.
Natasha took care of everything from hiring the staff to paying the mortgage on the family’s Connecticut mansion, especially after his father, Aristotle, could no longer pick up a pen to write out a check. She happened to be one hell of a knockout, too. It was no secret Andreas and Natasha had a past of both a personal and professional nature. They shared a special kind of history. One that allowed him to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, Natasha was a natural-born red-head. The Russian beauty personified every man’s wet dream, and she had the gusto to prove it. To Andreas, however, she’d been relegated to nothing more than a convenient bed partner.
“Someone needs to relax.” From across the table, Natasha peered up at him with a flirtatious little smirk. She slipped out of her three-inch black stilettos and slid her bare foot underneath the expensive mahogany desk and rubbed it up and down his inner thigh.
“I can help you blow off some steam, if you’d like.”
“I am sure you could, Natasha.” His expression flat, clearly unaffected. “You’ve always been the perfect companion in that regard. But at the moment, I’ve got more pressing matters to attend to.”
Natasha shot him an innocent smile and continued to caress him with her foot. The swaying motion of her pointed toes grazed the tip of his cock, sending pulsating waves straight to his balls. On any other day, it would have caused an instant erection. Not today.
Perhaps the petite brunette with the soul-searching eyes he found rummaging through his office had something to do with it. Thoughts of her had him rock hard all night long. Only when he reached the confines of his office, did it eventually dissipate.
Natasha reached over the table, her fingers fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. Andreas brushed his fingers though his long, wavy curls, cursing under his breath. Would she ever get the hint?
Finally, he pushed out of his chair, stalked to the door, and jerked it open. A clear sign that Andreas wasn’t interested in what Natasha had to offer. “The surveillance tapes, if you please.” With a palm at the small of Natasha’s back, he nudged her toward the office door as she dragged her feet.
Natasha thumbed her nose in the air at him. “Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything.” She flipped a lock of fiery-red hair over her shoulder and glared at Andreas over her shoulder as he shut the door behind her.
****
Once inside the command center in the basement of the club, Natasha sat down in an oversized chair to preview last night’s surveillance footage before sending it upstairs to her boss. She had a sneaking suspicion whoever had Andreas in such a foul mood would cause a whole hell of a lot of trouble for the vampire coven. No matter how secretive her boss seemed about the situation, it was her job to know exactly what went on in his life. But deep down she was ready to explode, infuriated by the way he’d blown her off in his office. Her intuition told her the person on the tape would be a woman, the one responsible for Andreas’s rejection. Natasha slid the DVD into the player and fast forwarded it to before midnight. She pressed play. Before long, the silhouette of a curvaceous young woman appeared on the monitor. She stepped into the light, and Natasha could see she was dressed all in black. The little thief wore a black leather mini-skirt, a lace corset, and suede boots that hugged her thighs. Natasha had to admit, the girl was a looker.
From the angle of the camera positioned at the main entrance, the woman made eye contact with Andreas as he sat in his usual spot on a velvet sofa in the first floor VIP area. But as the woman pivoted and walked up the stairs heading towards the third floor offices, his gaze r
emained locked on her. From her provocative style of dress and the way she carried herself, the wench’s presence at The Crypt last night had more to do with snagging Andreas’s attention than snooping around his office. The sleaze-factor on some of these girls was simply appalling.
To be on the safe side, Natasha ran the woman’s face through the visual recognition software program used by the FBI and Interpol.
In addition to flagging those who may be construed as threats to international security, it identified anyone currently employed as an agent or working as a mercenary on assignment in the United States or Europe. After she scrolled through several minutes of arms dealers and contract killers, the program stopped abruptly at the face of the woman. The same face caught on tape in the club last night.
Name: Eva Angelina Sambucco DOB: February 27, 1990
Birthplace: Albany, NY
Agency Affiliation: Homeland Security
Division: Bureau of Paranormal Affairs Immediate Superior: Oliver Polinski
Security Clearance: Top Secret
“Holy shit!” Natasha’s eyes opened wide as she read the words on the screen. “I should have known she worked for that rat, Polinski. She’s a fucking vampire hunter.”
The Kristopolous family was well-acquainted with Oliver Polinski. Since he took over the BPA ten years ago, his primary goal had been to discredit the network of legitimate businesses owned and operated by Aristotle Kristopolous. They’d lost millions of dollars on several New York City investments including a luxury hotel, three restaurants, two night clubs, and an art gallery. All their financial losses, attributed to the prejudice of one man on a mission to prove vampires were responsible for the downfall of society. Now, it seemed, the bastard had an accomplice.
She had to warn Andreas. If the woman in the surveillance video worked for Polinski, they were in even bigger trouble than Natasha had anticipated. But on second thought, it may be better to withhold this tidbit of information. After all, her boss deserved to sweat a bit after the way he dismissed her earlier in his office. So before she handed the footage over to one of the bouncers to deliver, she intentionally obscured the image of the woman’s face. An easy task considering the poor lighting and flashing bulbs of the club scene.
Irresistible Nemesis Page 2