book (6 page)

“
I’m coming Hathen,” she said aloud, her body blazing with suppressed desire and reaching for a man who wasn’t there.

Suddenly she bolted upright, rising from a layer of sweat that lined her sheets and soaked her modest nightgown.

Her eyes flew wide open, her heart racing for want of Hathen.

What has this man done to me?
She pondered, collapsing into the depths of her sheets and shutting her eyes tight.
It's time to surrender these distracting thoughts and get something of a good night’s sleep.

Yet the moment that her mind slipped the bounds of conscious, sensible thought, Jess returned to the faraway dream that seemed all too near and real.

“
I’ve never wanted a man more.” The vague thought penetrated the realm of her sweet dreamland. Her mind’s eye Jess pictured she and her lover rolling naked through the grasses of Nightingale Park; their sweaty bodies merging as one as finally he filled her with love and more by the light of a full moon.

“
Come to me Jess.” His voice sounded so true to life, like he was right there beside her in bed.

Yet when her eyes snapped open moments later, she was alone.

Only she didn’t feel so alone. Somehow she could feel his hands on her skin, she could sniff his scent in the depths of her sheets.

She could hear those words in her ears; his echoing summons that tempted her body and claimed her soul.

The bright rays of a Florida sun were no friend to Jess Green, as they awoke her from the brief amount of sleep she could get.

Finally she’d escaped to the darkened void of a pure, dreamless slumber; and although brief, it had served to refresh and rejuvenate her for the day that was to come.

“
I’m just glad I don’t have the day shift today,” she turned over on her side, running some soothing fingers through her mussy bob of short, dark hair.

As if on cue her phone rang, her caller ID lighting up with the name and number of the Clearview Police Department.

“
Perrrr-fect.” She rolled her eyes, hitting the ‘talk’ button on her phone. “This is Chief Green.”

“
Get down to the station Jessany.” It was Sgt. Dan Banyon, her right hand man at the department. “The vamp is driving me batty.”

Jess chuckled, rising from her bed with an internal cry of “Urrrrgh!”

“
You’re my best officer Dan, and one hell of a guy,” she praised. “It is for that reason, and only that reason, that I’ll excuse that awful pun.”

Dan sighed.

“
Sorry Boss, but this prisoner takes the cake with the file in it,” he commented, apparently deciding to continue his string of criminally bad wordplay. “The vampire Scarlet started off her day by trying to seduce her way out of her cell. Good thing for the department that I’m nice and gay. Then she threatened to drain my blood and suck out my soul. What a fun gal.”

“
Dan,” Jess interrupted, her tone serious as she walked the length of her bedroom. “Are you alone with her right now?”

“
Yep.” Dan’s own voice was lined with a tension that stirred Jess’s concern. “She’s currently crouched in the corner of her cell, no doubt planning my imminent demise... Or perhaps calculating the dimensions of her next spiral perm. With this chick it’s hard to tell.”

“
Hang tight Dan.” Jess said in a reassuring voice. “I’ll be right there.”

An hour later, Jess walked into the Clearview Police Department. But after the sight that now met her disbelieving eyes, she was more than ready to walk right back out again.

The vampire Scarlet, it seemed, no longer sat crouched in the corner of her cell. Instead she hovered far above the floor, her supple body suspended in midair as she scowled down at her arresting officers.

“
Oh Scarlet, stop being such a drama queen.” Jess rolled her eyes, approaching the side of the cell. “You refused your right to an attorney, so we didn’t send one. You refused to wear the orange jump suit, saying it bore a grave offense to your fashion sense. So we let you keep your street clothes,” her gaze scanned Scarlet’s skimpy black dress with judgmental eyes, “which does, incidentally, look very much like street clothes. In the literal sense…”

“
Shut your insolent mouth!” Scarlet roared, baring her fangs at the two police officers who stood outside her cell. “I am the queen of the fiercest vampire den that is known and recognized outside of Romania. I will not be caged!”

Jess had heard enough.

“
If you had so much power back at the den, then why come and bother the Clearview vamps?” She planted her hands on her hips.

At the mention of Hathen and his crew, Scarlet let loose with an inhuman roar that shook the walls of her tiny cell.

“
It is my goal to destroy every incubi den that populates and pollutes this planet,” she seethed, fists balled. “They soil the name of the vampire, and the blood-soaked legend of the immortal Count Dracula, with their loving and peaceful ways.” She spit out these last words like they were venom.

“
So they’re hippy vampires,” Jess sighed, drawing a chuckle from a rattled Dan. “What’s it to you?”

“
They are a disgrace!” Scarlet roared, scuffling about like an oversized fly in the confines of her holding space. “I intend to feed from their lust stricken bodies, just as I did with Hathen. Then I will rip them from limb to limb, as I almost did with Clotilde. This time, however, they will not survive the night!”

“
Yeah, well, good luck with that.” Refusing to be moved by Scarlet’s theatrics, Jess turned her back on her enraged prisoner and sat down at her corner desk. “You’re being charged with attempted murder.”

She froze as her words were met with a chilling round of cool, sinister laughter.

“
You’ll have to catch me first.” Scarlet sneered.

Jess turned with a smirk toward the cell, almost in disbelief at her prisoner's cockiness.

“
Hate to break it to ya toots,” she gestured toward the cell. “But you can’t fly too far in that cell. Well, at least before your lovely face makes unwelcome contact with a cast iron bar. But you're welcome to try.”

Landing on the cell floor with a casual shrug, the vampire stared at Jess with a deadly glare worth a thousand daggers.

“
Someone is coming for me,” she announced with a smile. “In fact, they may already be here.”

Bolting from her seat, Jess charged the cell with teeth bared and fists balled.

She pointed an authoritative finger right in Scarlet’s face. “Tell me who! Is it someone in Hathen’s den?”

Scarlet shrugged, infuriating Jess with her lack of cooperation.

“
You’re the big investigator,” she mocked, waving a carefree hand in Jess’s direction. “You tell me.”

Scarlet retreated to a corner of her lowly cell as her arresting officer roared her anger.

“
No, how about you tell me before I come in there and slug that annoying smile right off your irritating little face!” A wild-eyed Jess screamed outright as she pressed her face against the bars. “Spill it, Demon Barbie!”

“
Chief, Chief.”

Racing to her side, Sgt. Dan Banyon clutched her shoulders and lead her back to her desk.

“
You know, even when you’ve lost it you’re funny and dead cute.” He settled her back in the leathery confines of her soft desk chair; kneeling before her in a fatherly manner. “Still, you really need to calm yourself. Even vampires can claim police brutality these days.”

Scarlet let of another cackle from her cage.

“
No worries, Sgt. Sissy.” The insults aimed at Dan made Jess’s blood boil. “You two don’t know the meaning of the word brutality.” Her voice rang out with a chilling promise as is she knew what was going to come. “Not yet, anyway.”

****

These words echoed through Jess’s mind the duration of the day, as she struggled to focus on precinct paperwork and other everyday duties.

“
Only there’s nothing every day about my life anymore,” she sighed, finally setting aside her pen and papers and resting her head in her hands.

The passion and euphoria that the vampire Hathen had brought into her life, feelings that warmed and aroused her in equal measure, were balanced by the terror and uncertainty introduced by her former lover; a woman who threatened the peace and sanctity of her city. Even from behind bars.

“
Who knows how many nasty bloodsucking vamps are on their way to Clearview,” she sighed. “Who knows? One or two might already be here, putting both my people and Hathen’s in terrible danger.”

“
Chief?” Her troubled meditation was disrupted by a familiar and very friendly voice, one currently lined with a hint of concern. “Listen, you weren’t even supposed to come in so early.” Dan placed his hands on her shoulders. “Why don’t you go home and get some rest? Good ol’ Sgt. Sissy will hold down the fort here.”

A laughing Jess enveloped her friend in a grateful hug as she rose from her chair.

“
Sounds good.” She nodded.

As per Dan’s instruction, the Clearview police chief took immediate and hasty leave of her post. Yet instead of heading home as he recommended, she drove her compact car hard and fast in the direction of Nightingale Park.

Her mind reasoned that this trip was nothing more than a matter of official business, and a needed one at that.

I have to warn Hathen about the danger to his den,
she told herself, pushing her accelerator to break the speed limit she worked so hard to enforce.
I just hope they’re OK. Even now they might have a traitor among them.

Yet even as her head throbbed with the weight of her own worry, her body also throbbed for want of the same man her mind sought to warn.

Although exhausted, her entire being pounded with a strong, intense desire that threatened to overwhelm her. Her heart beat the rhythm of a saucy song, and her body answered the call; throbbing with an insane need that demanded immediate assistance.

She not only wanted Hathen, she needed him.

And now.

The moment that Jess crossed the emerald-grassed borders of Nightingale Park, she felt a hypnotic sense of calm consume and overtake her. It soothed her nerves, as she trekked the length of the nature made haven that added grace and beauty to her town.

She went to sit at the edge of the ivory stone fountain that formed the park’s center, smiling at the adorable cherub that made this fountain its home. It flashed her with a gleeful smile that seemed to be all knowing.