1 Dicey Grenor (15 page)

I had every
intention of turning around so Aaron could undress in peace, but couldn’t take
my eyes away from him. As sure as my name was Willow, I wanted a piece of that.
Plain and simple.

Never a girl for
body hair, I was surprised to find his so erotic. It decorated his skin like
diamonds on an earlobe…elegant and subtle…on a body made to be idolized. Only,
idolatry was a commandment violation so I’d settle with gawking shamelessly.

When he got down
to his underwear he self-consciously cupped his groin like that was going to
hide his package.
Too late.
I’d seen it all before
anyway.
Remi
was not shy.

Feeling like a
perv
, I finally had the decency to turn away. “You ready?”

“Are you sure
there’s no other way?”

Rafe
was a bully who only responded to bullying. “It’s
either this or I kill him and bury him in the backyard. Either way—I’m not
letting him take Cindy through the ringer.” I turned the camera on and waited
for Aaron to join
Rafe
on the bed.

I’d promised
Cin
I wouldn’t kill
Rafe
…and I
was regretting that. He was rotten to the core and since I was already breaking
a commandment by bearing false witness against him, I might as well just rid
the world of his ass. Who would miss one pompous-ass athlete anyway? Oh,
yeah—his daughter.

So this was the
best I could come up with. I’d take pictures of
Rafe
in a compromising position and dare him to continue waging war. If he didn’t
cease, these
pics
would be in every tabloid across
the country by next nightfall. From what
Cin
had said
about him,
Rafe
was such a homophobe, there was no
way he’d let that shit ride. He’d rather be dead than considered a homo.

Good for him ’cause
I’d rather him dead.

And since
Rafe
wasn’t really gay, well…there went God’s prohibition
against a false statement that degraded a neighbor’s reputation.
Cin
would have her daughter, but I’d no longer have a clean
record in lying against my neighbor.

At least it was
for a good cause…and technically, I wasn’t lying. I was just the one taking the
pics
.
Rafe
was the one who
decided whether they entered the media, and the general public would be the one
interpreting them. I wouldn’t be witnessing in court under oath so it wasn’t so
bad.

“Blackmail just
seems wrong,” said Aaron, inserting the obvious morality hitch.

“So is what he’s
doing to
Cin
.”

He ran a hand over
his head. “Why don’t
you
lie down and I take the pictures?”

“Because
he’s a
horndog
.
He’d post pictures of me and
him on a billboard
down 59 himself
. No, it has to be a
man.”
Enough with the questions.
Time was a’ wasting.
Morn was fast approaching. I needed to hurry, get the ball rolling, and get
back in my room before sunup.

Just stick to the
plan.

“How do I know you
won’t use these photos to blackmail me too? My father’s an important
businessman. These pictures would be just as damaging to him.”

“Thanks for the
tip.” He snapped his head up and I laughed. “I’m just kidding.” After
Remi’s
description of his father, I couldn’t see why Aaron
would care what happened to the old fart. Why not rebel, show dad he didn’t
give a shit about his reputation? Then again, I hadn’t retaliated against my
parents either. “You can keep the camera. Do what you will with the pictures.”

He cocked his head
to the side and considered that for a moment. “You’d do that for me? You’d lose
your leverage if I deleted the
pics
.”

“I know. Look, why
are you asking all these questions now? Are you
gonna
help me or not?”
Or am I going to have to captivate you into submission?

“Yes. I’ll help. I
trust you.”

Was that because I
planted
trust me
in his brain last night or because I sold the plan
well?

Aaron walked
toward the bed, eyeing
Rafe
. “Why is he just lying
there like he can’t move?”

I considered
saying
Rafe
was drunk, mentally challenged, in a
coma. But when it was all said and done, I spoke only the truth.
“Because he can’t.”

Aaron looked at me
then back at
Rafe
.
“Why not?
What did you do to him?”

“I sort of put him
in a trance.”

“You hypnotized
him?”

I nodded.

Aaron sat on the
edge of the bed and thought for a moment. “If you can do that, why don’t you
just
make
him drop the lawsuit?”

“Because I’m not
certain the command would be sufficient or work permanently. If my hypnosis
wore off, Cindy would be right back to
Rafe
ruining
her life. And if he dropped the suit but decided to hurt her in another way…no,
I need him to know he’s
gotta
back off from her in
all regards.” Wow. How was that for candor? He was really good for my soul. All
this purging, sincerity, honesty, openness…

Aaron leaned over
Rafe
, running his hand back-and-forth over
Rafe’s
eyes like you would a blind man. “Have you
hypnotized me? Is that how I knew to pick you up from work?”

Uh
oh.

I just stared at
him which was all the answer he needed.

“Jesus Christ,” he
said.

“You shouldn’t use
the savior’s name in vain.”

“He’s not my
savior, Willow. I’m Jewish.”

Oh. Now there was
wrinkle…one I should have seen coming. Guess that meant Aaron and I would be
unequally yoked in faith as well as species. I could really pick ’
em
.

Holding the camera
steady, I started snapping photos of the couple and explaining to
Rafe
what he needed to do in order to make sure the images
never saw the light of day. The more I said the more flaccid his dick became.
He clearly wasn’t happy about the terms.

Aaron continued
posing beautifully, but it wasn’t enough.
Rafe
needed
to appear aroused, to be enjoying Aaron’s company. In order for him to back off
Cin
completely, the photos needed to be convincingly
humiliating.

“Wait. He’s soft.”
Grabbing
Rafe’s
limp noodle, I squeezed and slid my
hand up and down over and over. His head tossed from side-to-side as if he was
trying to clear it and fight for control. It was purely a clinical action on my
part until I realized how close nearly-naked Aaron was. He was watching me, and
as sure as I wasn’t a mule’s ass, I was turned on by it. I started working
Rafe
faster and harder and the more he grew, the more I got
into it.

Until I noticed
there was nothing stirring in Aaron’s boxers.

Surely, not
everyone was a voyeur. In fact, some men would find a woman stroking another
man in front of him downright offensive. But damn.
Nothing?

When
Rafe
moaned, my attention turned back towards him. I
dropped his dick like a hot frying pan. If I wasn’t careful, this would be
rape. And I wasn’t into that.

I backed away and
let my camera take over, sealing the deal. Aaron leaned in for poses without me
asking. Modeling should have been his hobby, if not his bread-n-butter ’cause…

Rafe
suddenly lunged upward with the force of two horses,
head-butting Aaron in the nose. Blood gushed. Aaron yelled and grabbed his nose
with both hands, falling back from the bed unto the floor. Blood ran down his
fingers, arms, neck...

Oh shit.

My captivation
power had worn off. I hadn’t given
Rafe
another
command after telling him to get on the bed and wait for me.

But forget what I
did and didn’t do. We had another problem…a bigger one.

My fangs were
protruding, ready. My eyes were glowing red. My mouth was watering. The human I
used to be was completely gone and my vampire instincts had taken over. I saw
only one thing—blood. I didn’t care about the Ten Commandments,
Rafe
staring at me in horror, or the fact that my plan had
gone to shit. And though I felt bad Aaron was hurt, I didn’t care enough to get
him a wad of tissue.

His blood was
calling me.

And I couldn’t
resist.

Chapter 18

Tossing
Rafe
out of the way like a sack of potatoes, I pounced on
Aaron with the fierceness of a lioness attacking the last antelope in the
wilderness. I sank my fangs into the bridge of his nose and latched onto his
bleeding nostrils without regard for his pain or the damage I inflicted. He
fought with everything he had but his strength was no match for mine. Pinning
his body down, I had no thought for the feelings I had for him or
Remi
. No thought for the fear and panic he was in.

His blood was good
and I was on a natural high.

At some point, I
remembered two things: one, I needed to stop before I took too much, and two,
things would get scary for me if I fell asleep while feeding. But ultimately,
those thoughts faded with each gulp of his satisfying blood.

I’d had blood
straight from the source not long ago. But this was my first Aaron feast. I was
overcome with hunger, no, greed.

Did I mention how
good it was?

I was vaguely
aware of a tingling in my fingers and toes, of cool breeze on my neck, and the
faint smell of sweet vanilla. I chalked it up to Aaron’s energy seeping into my
pores and sucked harder. He stopped struggling, probably passed out. I was too
gone to care.

Hey,
beauti
—Ach Mein
Gott
! Willow?

Where was that
voice coming from? And why was it speaking German? It was in my mind and I had
the vague sense I should know, but the blood, the hunger—I couldn’t think.

Tearing myself
from Aaron’s face, I looked around the room like a madwoman.
Rafe’s
punk-ass was crouched in the corner with a phone to
his ear. His hands were shaking and his eyes were wide like he’d seen a ghost.

Or
a vampire.

“9-1-1? My address
is—”

I lurched forward,
backhanding him like the bitch he was. He slammed into the wall and plopped
onto the floor. It had happened so fast he couldn’t even think about blocking
it.
So much for being a super offensive lineman.
He
wasn’t shit.

Willow,
please tell me these are strangers you are planning to kill.

There was that
voice again. It wasn’t
Rafe
or Aaron. They were both
out cold. Who the…?

Wiping blood from
my mouth with the back of my hand, I looked around wildly. Aaron was on the
floor on the far side of the bed,
Rafe
was on the
floor by the door. No one else was in the room.

Willow, you
have been a very bad—

“Not now, Max.”

I slowly came to
myself. To the realization of what I’d done.
To the horror of
my actions.
Looking over at Aaron, I dropped to my knees in shame. He
wasn’t moving.

Wait—Max! I’d
heard Max. He was here.

“Max, where are
you?”

“Right here,
darling.” This time his voice came from right next to me, along with his unique
vanilla scent. And it was no longer in my head, but audible. He was making
himself visible to me even though he wasn’t in the flesh.

This was one of
those times I could have used his actual presence instead of his metaphysical
manifestation. Nevertheless, I jumped in his arms and hugged him tightly. I had
no experience with cleaning up the mess I’d just made because it had never
happened to me before. Max would know what to do.

My bloodlust had
scared the
bejesus
out of me. But worst of all, I’d
hurt Aaron…sweet Aaron. He’d already suffered so much in life.

Oh, God. This was
precisely why humans were killing us off.

Letting Max go, I
rushed to Aaron’s side. Having read my mind, Max beat me to him.

“He is alive.
Barely,” Max said.

The closer I got
to Aaron, the worse I felt. His nose looked like it had been mauled by a savage
animal. I burst into tears. I’d done that.

I rubbed Aaron’s
hair as my first tear fell on his forehead.
“Oh, God.
I did this to him.”

Max looked at me
with a weird expression. “You are a vampire, Willow. What do you expect? I told
you to stay away from him.”

Ignoring Max, I
wiped my tears and leaned down to feel how strong Aaron’s pulse was.
Not very.
I got a good look at him and winced. Such a
beautiful face destroyed. I couldn’t stand myself at the moment.

“He is not
conscious so you cannot erase his memories. If he lives, he will identify you.
You have to kill him, Willow. I will tell you how to dispose of the body so
that—”

“No.” I would not
do that to him.
Rafe
on the other hand...

“It is doubtful
your human will survive anyway.” He went to check on
Rafe
.
“Kill this one and make it look like a burglary. You must hurry before—”

“I won’t leave
Aaron here to die.” I stood up. “I’m taking him to the hospital.”

“You cannot risk
it. It is nearly dawn.”

Fuck.

There had to be
something I could do for him.

Rafe
started moving around and murmuring in the corner.
Too bad for him.