Dead and Kicking (6 page)

My body felt like it was on
fire. His mouth moved along my abdomen,
blazing a trail south. My back arched in
anticipation. Kisses rained down on my
skin, setting every molecule alight. I
writhed, my hands skimming my body until they reached my breasts. Cupping each mound, I rubbed my nipples with
my thumbs. Aching for more, my hand slid
down between my legs to join his.

“What the hell?!”

I jolted awake and sat up in bed,
flicking on the light to find an almost solid Bryce standing at the end of my
bed.

“Whoa. I didn’t even know I could do that.” He held his hands up to look at them but they
were quickly becoming more and more translucent. “How did I do that?”

“More like, what the hell did you
think you were doing?” I grabbed a
t-shirt from the end of the bed and pulled it on to cover the fact that I was
sleeping buck naked.

Looking sheepish, Bryce
shrugged. “I…well, you….”

“You don’t just sneak into women’s
beds and start feeling them up, you pervert.”

“But you looked like you were having
such a good time.” He wrapped his arms
around himself and started to rub his shoulders while cooing, “Oooo, yeah. Ohhh baby…”

“Shut up. I was not doing that.” I pulled the covers up
over my legs. “What are you
still doing here anyway? Didn’t you see
a light or something? I took care of
your problem. You should be gone.”

“I don’t know. I was just here and you were sleeping…”

“So you decided to watch me? That’s just creepy.”

“Well, now that we know I can do more
than watch…” He wiggled his eyebrows at
me.

“No! That’s just so wrong. Forget it, Bryce.” I threw a pillow at him. It sailed right through his less than
substantial body. “Why can't you just
make yourself useful and try to remember who killed you?”

“I’m trying, but it’s just not
there. I can remember that I accidentally left something at a job and I went back to get it, but then,”
he bumped his fist on his head in frustration, “I just don’t know. I can’t remember anything after that.”

“Okay. It’s all right.” I looked at the clock. Four thirty a.m. Great. I’d only been asleep for an hour and a
half. “I’m going back to sleep. We’ll try and figure it out in the morning.”

Bryce took a step towards the
bed. “You know I could…” He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers,
a cheeky smile on his face.

I leaned over and gestured for him to
come closer then zapped him with 1200 volts from the Taser I grabbed from the
bedside table. Unable to withstand the
power overload, he instantly evaporated into thin air. “No means no, you pervert.”

***

Hours later, I still couldn’t get the
dream out of my head. Sure it was sexy
and a girl has needs, but I was having a hard time understanding why the
co-star of my own personal mind-porn had to be Cian Nash. Okay, so the guy was hot, sexy hot; gorgeous
green eyes, tousled hair, washboard abs and chiseled biceps hot. But he was also a jerk, a great big, A-one,
alpha jerk.

As if I needed more proof of that,
Tess arrived home from the gym for lunch with a pronouncement.

“Tonight? The Triad wants to see me
tonight?” I asked incredulously. After
years of being barred from werewolf affairs, suddenly the Triad, the pack’s
ruling council, wanted to see me. This
couldn’t be good. “It’s Nash, isn’t
it? He ratted
you out and now you’re in trouble or something?”

“No, of course
not.”
Tess looked uncomfortable. “Look,
the Triad just thought it was time. They
want to meet you.” She turned away and
started fussing with her gym bag. “I’ve
got to head back to work. Don’t worry,
it’ll be fun. You and Holly have been wanting to come to The Lodge and now you’ll get your
chance.”

There was definitely more to it than
what Tess was letting on. We were close,
like sisters, except when it came to all things werewolf. It stemmed back to the year we turned
sixteen. Gran had passed away and just
when we needed each other the most, Tess disappeared from my life for six
months. I knew it had to do with the
fact that her first change had occurred, werewolves don’t shift for the first
time until after puberty kicks in, but it still hurt to suddenly be shut
out. It was a big part of her life - it defined who she was - but she wasn’t allowed to share it with me or Holly
and it put a strain on all of us.
Whatever it was that was bugging Tess, I let it slide. I’d find out soon enough when I met the Triad
tonight. Besides, she was right, Holly
and I had been dying to see The Lodge, the infamous werewolf bar.

With no deliveries needed for the
shop and Holly and Tess both at work, I had spent my time staring at the
computer watching the video over and over, hoping to find some clue to the
identities of the men. There was also
something different about the knife they used.
It looked like some sort of ceremonial dagger and I wondered if it might
provide a lead. The video was just too
grainy to be much use though, because of the low lighting, and I didn’t know
how to fix it.

“The quality of the video is
crap.” Bryce materialized beside me,
sitting on the desk.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious. Can I do anything to clean it up?”

“Well, you could try to punch up the
highlights, maybe neutralize the colour balance, stabilize
–”

“Forget I asked.” I shook my head. I had no clue how to do what he was talking
about.

“Here let me…” He reached for the
mouse, only to have his hand pass through.
“Oh yeah, forgot about that.” He
playfully pushed his spectral hand into the side of the computer until it disappeared
up to his wrist then pulled it out again.
“Hmmmm, maybe I could….” He grabbed both sides of the computer then
appeared to bang his head on the case.
Instead, his head disappeared followed quickly by his shoulders then
arms, and then suddenly he was gone.

“Bryce!”
I looked at the computer monitor.
The normal desktop had been replaced by a black screen with a blinking
cursor. “Bryce?”

HEY. THIS IS SO COOL.

The words appeared on the screen
where the blinking cursor had been.

“Bryce?” I looked at the monitor in surprise. “Are you in my computer?”

YES.
WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP. YOU’RE
USING A 10 YEAR OLD OPERATING SYSTEM? SERIOUSLY?

“Whoa. I didn’t know you could do that.”

NEITHER DID I. DID I MENTION THIS IS SO COOL? HEY!
I’M NO LONGER A SPIRIT IN THE MATERIAL WORLD. I’M A GHOST IN THE MACHINE!

Man, that was bad. “Police album
references aside, do you think you can fix the video?”

YES.
BUT WE’RE GOING TO NEED SOME UPGRADES FIRST.

“Upgrades?”

DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. I’LL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING.

More famous last words.

I spent the remainder of the
afternoon tending my rooftop garden. I
may have a magical green thumb, thanks to inheriting some witchy powers from
Gran, but the plants still needed some hands on care. This late in the season, most gardeners had
already brought in their harvest and packed it in for the year. Not me though, with the help of my magic I
would be gardening all year long.

When the sun began to set, I arrived
back in my room to take a shower, just in time to hear the tail end of a phone
message from our landlord.

“….so sorry. So very sorry. Goodbye.”

I grabbed the phone hoping to catch
him. “Hello? Mr. Rahmadesh?” He had already hung up. That was strange. I wondered what he could be calling
about. It was the middle of the month
and the rent wasn’t due until the first.
And, what did he have to be sorry about?

I called his cell but got that
annoying ‘We’re sorry the cellular customer you have dialed is not available’
message. Weird. Weirder still, when I tried his shop number - he owned the local dry cleaners - the message said the
phone had been disconnected. I was sure
there would be an explanation though.
Mr. Rahmadesh had probably switched service
providers or something. I’d listen to
his entire message later after I jumped in the shower.

***

I was never getting out of the shower
again. Being swathed by hot water
flowing out of multi-jets and a rain head shower will do that to you. Definitely worth the splurge I had made in my ensuite bathroom.
Since our bedrooms were side by side, Tess and I had opted to both have
smaller private ensuites with showers and share a
large bathroom between our two rooms with a great, big, jetted soaker tub.

“You’ve got visitors,” a voice said
from outside of the shower stall.

“Gran! Where have you been?” I spluttered as I got a face full of
water. I fumbled for the faucet and
turned the water off. Grabbing a towel,
I wrapped it around myself and stepped out of the shower. “It’s been crazy around here thanks to that
stupid date –”

“We don’t have time for chit chat
right now. You have company
downstairs. Get dressed.”

“Company? Who? What’s going on?” I dried myself off quickly and hurried into
my bedroom.

“I don’t know, but if
he’s
here, nothing good. Where’s your sword?”

“Where it always is, hanging up
downstairs. Who’s he? Why do I need my
sword? Should I call the police?”

“The police won’t help you. Laws don’t touch him. How he found you, I don’t know.”

“Found me? Who found me?” I quickly pulled on some jeans and a
t-shirt. “What’s going on?”

“Salvador
Arroyo.
The Magister.
I don’t know how he found out about you….”

“The Magister? Here? Why would he be here?
How
could he be? He’s a vampire.”

Just like in the movies, a vampire
had to be invited across your threshold.
That was the main reason we had closed off the access to the apartment
from the shop using the fire pole. As a
public business, a vamp could enter the shop with no restrictions. We wanted to make sure the apartment was a
completely separate space. Vampires may
be sticklers for the rules, but they were also great at finding loopholes. I palmed a knife that I sometimes
carried. Not that it would do much good
against a vampire, but a six-inch, double-edged, clip point blade was better
than nothing and I didn’t own a gun or silver bullets.

I had more questions for Gran, like
how she knew the Magister and why he would even be looking for me, but she
conveniently had vanished. I quickly
texted an SOS to Tess to let her know I had company, then quietly made my way
to the top of the stairs leading down to the second level. The stairs came out at the end of the hall
behind the kitchen. There were no
sightlines into the living area from the bottom of the stairway which meant
that whoever was downstairs wouldn’t be able to see me; then again, I wouldn’t
be able to see them either.

I crept as quietly as I could, but it
was pretty much a given that I couldn’t hide from a vampire’s amped up hearing
or sense of smell. When I reached the
end of the wall dividing the hall and the kitchen, I started to peek around the
corner only to be abruptly grabbed and thrown against the wall.

“Gaak!” I said.
Hey, you try talking when a six foot goon with the strength of a vampire
has his arm across your windpipe.

Tomas had pinned my knife hand as
well as my throat. He grinned at me
smugly. I could see Salvador lounging
unconcerned across the room. My vision
began to blur from the lack of oxygen as I let my knees give out a little,
shifting more of my weight onto his arm.
Surprised, he loosened his grip enough that I was able to take a rasping
breath. I quickly brought my knee up to
his groin as hard as I could. It was
satisfying to know that whatever he was, he still felt it when he got one in
the ‘nads.
Tomas let go of my arm and I slid down the wall. Unwilling to hope that a shot to the junk was
enough to keep him down, I followed through with a
quick punch to his throat. He fell to
one knee and I sprang away trying to get across the room to my katana.

I only made it a couple steps before
Tomas grabbed my ankle and sent me sprawling on my back. With the lightning speed of an angry vampire,
I was once again pinned. This time Tomas knelt over me straddling my hips, his one hand on
my collarbone, the other in my hair pulling my head back to expose my throat.

“I’m going to enjoy sucking you
dry.” He bared his teeth, his fangs
prominently displayed. What the hell was
he? I could feel his body heat and the
thumping of his heart in his chest, but he had fangs and the strength and speed
of a vamp.

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” I
rasped, my voice steadier than I would have expected, given the
circumstances. “Not unless you want to
see who bleeds out first.” To emphasize
my point, I pushed the tip of my knife up against his groin. Whatever Tomas was, I was hoping he would
bleed. “It would be a shame to slice up
your nice pants; although, black leather?
Really?
Isn’t that a little much for this time of day?”

Tomas hissed and I tensed waiting for
him to tear out my throat. Instead of
the intense pain I expected, there was the sound of three slow claps.

“Children, children,” Salvador
admonished. “Enough
playing games.”

With another hiss, Tomas released his
grip on my head, just as I started to push him off me. I sprang to my feet and completed my dash
across the room, grabbing my katana and unsheathing it in one motion.

“What the hell are you doing in my
house?” I positioned myself with my back
to the wall, keeping both vampires in sight at the end of my blade. “How did you even get in here? You haven’t been invited.”

“You mean
my
house.” Salvador waved his
hand to encompass the room.

“Your house?” I stammered, but I already
knew what he meant, the half-heard phone message from my landlord suddenly
making frightening sense. “What did you
do to Mr. Rahmadesh?”

“Do?”
Salvador smiled, pressing his hands together as if in prayer. “Why I did nothing to your dear Mr. Rahmedash, but offer him a proposal he felt he couldn’t
refuse.”

“Why?
Why would you want to buy this building?”

“Come now. Must you stand there? Sit, sit.
We mean you no harm.” Salvador
gestured to the chair beside him.

I looked at Tomas who still stood
glaring at me. “I think your friend here
would beg to differ.”

“Nonsense. Tomas will not harm
you.” When he spoke, I could feel the
power behind his words. Tomas’s stance
stiffened and he looked away from me.

I lowered my sword but didn’t
re-sheathe it. “What do you want from
me? I sent you the encryption key this
morning.”

“Yes, yes,” he gestured
impatiently. “That deal has been struck
and it will be honoured. I come to you
now with a different proposition.”

I shifted uneasily. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like the
sound of whatever it was he was going to propose. “What
kind
of proposition?”

Salvador laughed. “Oh my dear Miss Russo, so
suspicious. Relax. I promise you it is nothing you will find
too,” he paused as if trying to find the right words, “…unsavoury. A deal that will be mutually beneficial.”

“I’m listening.”

“One night,” he held up a finger
dramatically, “one night of your time.”
He raised his hand to stall my protests.
“For dinner.
You spend the evening with me, dine with me at my club, and in return, I
will give you the deed to this building.”

“Just like
that?
You’d hand over a half million dollar building for a dinner date?” I eyed him suspiciously. There had to be a catch, there was always a
catch when it came to making deals with vampires. Like maybe I would
be
dinner.

“I assure you there is no catch.” Salvador replied. It was as if he read my mind, which did
little to set me at ease. For all I knew
he
could
read my mind. If that was the case, then if Salvador
thought I was going to have sex with him, he could take the deed to the
building and shove it….Hmm, no response there.
So maybe Salvador couldn’t read my mind.

“Don’t get me wrong, I want my
building, but I don’t see what you get out of the deal.” Figuring I was safe enough and, since I felt
stupid standing there holding my katana, I sheathed it, but didn’t hang it back
up.

“Why your
charming conversation of course.” Salvador managed to say it with a completely
straight face so I was almost inclined to believe he meant it, especially when
I looked over at Tomas, who appeared to be having an aneurysm or
something. The look on Tomas’s face
alone might have been worth the date.

“We have so much to talk about, you
and I,” Salvador continued on, seemingly oblivious to his Lieutenant’s distaste
at the thought. “I find you most
intriguing. Why have we not met
before?” He paused to look at me
appraisingly. “And then of course,
there’s that nasty business on the video you provided to me.”

“You’ve watched the video? Do you know who the men are?” I was eager to learn what I could, in case it
helped lead us to Bryce’s killers.

“Yes, yes, all in due time. Shall we say nine o’clock, tomorrow
evening?” Salvador rose from his
seat. He reached into the breast pocket of
his three piece suit and pulled out an official looking piece of paper. “And as
a show of good faith, I have already taken the liberty of signing the building
over to you. Let us shake hands and call
it a deal, shall we?”

I looked at the deed and then
Salvador’s outstretched hand. There had
to be a catch. Just like the saying, if
it was too good to be true…there was probably a vampire involved.

“Just dinner
and conversation, nothing else. And, I get to come home, safe,
afterwards?” I hesitated.

“Yes, you will be perfectly
safe. It is simply dinner and
conversation, and the building is yours, free and clear.” If there was more, he didn’t get a chance to
say it before someone began to bang on the door.

“Miss Russo! Harry! Open up. It’s Detective Nash.”

“Well my dear?” Salvador arched an eyebrow at me. “Do we have a deal?”

“I…” I looked to the door then back
to Salvador, “…yes.” I reached out and
he grasped my hand firmly. Unlike our
handshake from the other night, this time I felt a tingling sensation followed
by a sense of well-being. Salvador bowed
over my hand, turning it palm up to press his lips against the pulse throbbing
in my wrist. Deep in the recesses of my
mind, I knew that I had just made some sort of mistake, but it was hard to be
concerned with such a warm and inviting feeling running through me.

“Harry! Are you there?
We need to talk.” Nash’s voice
broke through my reverie. I looked up,
but Salvador and Tomas were already making their way to the door leaving me
standing with the deed in one hand and my katana lying in its sheath on the
floor beside me.

“Until
tomorrow, my dear Miss Russo.” Salvador smiled at me, looking like a
Cheshire cat. Tomas opened the door,
surprising Nash with his hand raised in mid-knock. “Detective Nash.”
Salvador nodded to Nash then proceeded out the door, followed by Tomas.

“Harry! Are you okay?” Nash rushed over, grabbing me by my
elbows. He looked me up and down as if
assessing me for injury, frowning at the red marks around my throat. “What the hell did he want? Did he hurt you?”

“What? No.” I
still felt a little dazed from my skin to skin contact with Salvador. “I…I shook his hand.” I held up my hand to look at it.
It looked absolutely normal. I swallowed in relief only to have the pain
remind that someone
had
hurt me. I touched my throat. “It was that asshole, Tomas.” The dazed feeling was quickly dissipating and
I was getting my mad on instead. “What
the hell is he anyway?”