Natural Consequences (73 page)

Then Alex glanced over to the pair of agents one more time. He gave Lorelei’s hand a squeeze. “That guy?” he murmured.

She nodded, and then looked to him curiously. The couple fell a step behind their group. Her eyebrow rose. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“It’s entirely up to you,” Alex shrugged. “You always accommodate my shenanigans.”

Lorelei pursed her lips with amusement. “I’ll remember your choice of words,” she said as she broke off from the group. The others noticed her change of direction as they piled into the minivan, but none came up with reasons to stand there watching with Alex.

Lanier lingered. Alex gave him an accusing look. “She’s not gonna jump him in the open for everyone to watch, ya perv,” he said with feigned irritation.

“I am pleased to see you made it through the night unscathed,” Lorelei said to
Bridger. She didn’t quite smile, but her words sounded genuine enough.

Bridger
rose from his work, unsure of what to say. “I’m not sure that’s the word I’d use to describe it,” he shrugged, “but I’ll be okay. Does your, uh, boyfriend there, um… Am I in for another kick in the face?”

“No. We have an understanding,” she smiled. “Thank you for asking. And you? I would imagine your superiors will not be pleased.”

He threw a guilty look toward Amber, who pointedly kept her eyes on her camera and the ground. “I think I’ll be alright, all things considered,” he said.

Lorelei gave a little nod. She stepped closer to him, producing a small black business card from nowhere and slipping it into his shirt pocket. “Call me next time you’re in town. Perhaps I’ll be able to make it up to you.”

With that, she walked away, leaving him watching in awe.

Lanier
had already slipped into the driver’s seat, wanting nothing more than to get on with this. “Shall we depart?” Lorelei asked Alex as she joined him.

“He’s got a goatee,”
Alex observed.

“Yes.”

“I thought you didn’t like facial hair.”

“I don’t care for it, but it’s not a deal-breaker. You kicked him?”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded. “When they arrested me.”

“He remembers.”

Alex paused. “Are you telling me that to soothe my ego?”

“Perhaps. Does it need soothing?”

“Well,” he grinned, “you did fool around behind my back.”

“I intend to make up for
it,” she nodded with a solemn smile. She accepted his hand as she stepped into the minivan.

Alone among the group, Jason looked back as they drove away.

* * *

“I demand to speak with your superiors! And my attorney! I’ll have both of your heads for this!”

“Christ, I’m seriously havin’ second thoughts about not gagging him,” Tyrone grumbled. He sat in the shotgun seat with his arm propped up against the door, resting his cheek against his hand.

“Cruel and unusual, buddy,” replied Kevin. He had to raise his voice a bit over the shouts of their prisoner, but past that he kept his calm.

“This is intolerable! Where are you taking me?”

“I told you, we’re taking you downtown,” Kevin shrugged. “Soon. Meantime, we need a bite to eat. The cliché kind,” he added with a snort.

He pulled the patrol car around the back of the donut shop, rolling past several parking spots until he got to the side driveway between the shop and the tall concrete wall separating the property from the nearby apartment block. “Chill out here for a while, buddy,” Kevin grunted as he turned off the car and got out.

“What? You mean to leave me here?” Wentworth fairly shrieked.

“It’s a safe neighborhood,” Tyrone shrugged. “You’ll be fine.”

Wentworth watched in horror as the pair strolled around the corner toward the donut shop. He could see them through the building’s side windows as they entered.

“We need to start eating healthier,” Tyrone said.

“Huh? What do you mean? Oh, hi, Orion,” he smiled. “Nice to see you.”

The skinny, curly-haired young man at the counter looked up at the two officers and froze long enough to let out a slow, annoyed breath. “Hello, officers,” he muttered.

“Could I get a maple-bacon and a chocolate glazed?” asked Kevin.

“Just a bearclaw for me,” said Tyrone. “And a mocha, no whip.”

“Sure,” Orion grumbled. He put down his guitar and rose from his stool to retrieve their orders.

“You know what I mean,” Tyrone said to Kevin as soon as Orion was out of easy earshot. “You ever do a calorie count on this stuff?”

“Just work it off at the gym,” Kevin shrugged.

“I’d have to live there to work this off. I can’t do that. I’ve got a wife.”

“Oh, sure, rub my bachelorhood in my face.”

Behind the counter, Orion rose with bearclaw and maple-bacon bar in hand to look out the window at the thrashing, panicked figure in the back of the patrol car. He shook his head in annoyance.

“You might try dating someone sane for once. I’m just sayin’.”

“Oh, are you calling Officer Esposito crazy?”

Tyrone shot him a deadpan stare. “Yes.”

“Okay, fair enough,” Kevin grumbled.

The pair then cringed and looked out the window at the sound of a terrified, strangled cry. “Jesus, he’s got some pipes on him,” Tyrone blinked.

“I know, right?” asked Kevin. “I mean, all this distance
and
through two windows? Wow.”

“Hey, you ever tell anyone about the kinda freaks there are in this town?” Tyrone asked.

Kevin gave a little snort. “Seriously? Who am I gonna tell?”

“I don’t know. Your niece, maybe?”

“I’m not worried about her,” Kevin shrugged. “Molly and that girlfriend of hers have their act together. They’re not gonna fall into anything crazy.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Mostly, I just wish more of the department knew. Or other agencies. I mean, it’d be nice if we could get FBI support with these assholes or something once in a while, y’know? But they’d just think we’re nuts.”

A second scream drifted across the counter as the first rays of the dawn came through the entrance of the donut shop. Kevin and Tyrone looked out the window involuntarily, but their attention was tugged back to their surroundings once more as Orion slapped their plates down on the counter.

“Okay, guys, I put up with a lot because I want to be supportive,” Orion said, frustration boiling to the surface. “But could you quit bringing every stupid vampire you catch to my parking lot for their suntans?”

Over his shoulder, smoke and flames drifted out of the windows of the patrol car. “Aw, shit,” Kevin
blinked, “he actually caught fire! How are we gonna explain that?”

* * *

“I like the rose petals,” Alex said as he discovered the red trail leading to their bedroom. He walked barefoot through their home, his shoes and socks discarded in the foyer with his jacket.

“They were for Rachel,” explained Lorelei with a smile.

“Yeah, her torn dress by the balcony kinda gave that away,” he grinned back. He came to a halt as he stepped into the bedroom. Ripped sheets, broken glasses and knocked-over bedroom furnishings decorated the room. “Wow. You two had a good time, didn’t you?”

Lorelei looked upon the disheveled chamber with a cool, pleased smile and not a shred of shame or embarrassment. “Passion occasionally brings a material cost along with its blessings. I don’t believe apologies will be forthcoming.”

“It must’ve been spectacular to see.”

“I doubt we would have allowed you to stand aside and watch, had you been present,” she mused. “Still, it is good to devote time solely to each other. We are as committed to one another as we are to you.”

His smile deepened, but he couldn’t hold back the yawn. “I’m exhausted,” he confessed, “but Rachel had a request.”

“She did,” agreed Lorelei. She stepped in close, hooking one hand around his neck to entice him with her fingers on his skin. “My needs may even run deeper than hers.” Her face came close, favoring him with a kiss and a long, tender caress of her cheek against his. “I feel your desire for me, love. It is flavored by your fatigue, by your doubt… by your longing. You are still unsettled that I have strayed. Yet you know we will work this out. You love me and want me now in spite of this change. You feel the pull of the inevitable.” She paused and confessed into his ear, “Forgive me, love, but it is delicious.”

His arms slipped around her waist. “Desire comes in flavors?”

“Yes,” she nodded, lips trailing along his neck. “Context is everything. I draw power from the desire and the pleasures of my victims. The feeling is different with each individual, but even beyond that, my own pleasure differs with circumstance. It depends as much on the situation as the partner.”

Caressing fingers turned to unfastening buttons and buckles. Their breath grew heavy. “Tell me about it,” Alex murmured into her ear.

He felt her smile against his neck. “I am a wicked woman.” She paused. “That concerns you, and it excites you at the same time.”

“Yeah,” he said. He pulled the open shirt from her shoulders, revealing her black, lacy bra and the beauty it shaped. He felt Lorelei tremble with appreciation as his touch roamed her sides and her chest. “This is nice.”

“This is for you.
I
am for you, Alex,” she told him. “I put it on for you yesterday after you sent that video. I had plans. I needed you badly.” She pulled his boxer briefs down to free his erect need. Her fingers went to work, gently caressing and teasing his flesh as she spoke.

“Instead, I eventually satisfied myself with another man. I seduced him against his better judgment while bound and while Rachel watched. He put his career at great risk to sate his desire for me. He felt guilt and worry, but his desires overran all that
. He
had
to have me. And I thought, with every passing second and with every pleasant touch, that I would have to answer to you for what I did… and even
tha
t felt good. All those details, that unique blend of conditions… I enjoyed it greatly.”

Lorelei kept his hands above her hips. He couldn’t slip her pants off without taking full control, and he didn’t want to do that. Not while those fingers came ever closer to much more sensitive and needful flesh. “Is this the moment to talk about that?”

“It is,” she nodded, “because you must understand why I enjoyed it, and why I will inevitably stray again… and why I will always come back, eagerly and of my own free will. Why no matter how few or how many partners we both have, at our core we will still belong to one another.”

She curled those fingers over his shaft, pushing his remaining garment the rest of the way down his legs. “We share so much, Alex. We tend to one another’s lust. We keep our secrets together. We make love as much as we
fuck
,” she hissed teasingly into his ear.

“Love and sex are not the same, but they become so much better together. You and Rachel love me. I feel it in
every
context. We share an intimacy that will never be matched.”

“Drop the illusion,” he murmured. “Show me the real you.”

He felt the tail snaking along his leg before he saw her red skin and her demonic wings and horns. His heart quickened at the sight of her.

“I love you, Lorelei,” Alex murmured. “I love you… and I trust you.”

She let out a note of curiosity, but her lips were on his neck.

“You’re worn out. You were hurt. You need this, don’t you?”

Lorelei paused in her affection to nod. “I am weakened, yes,” she said. “I am drained, and hungry. I need this.”

Alex nodded. He drew her up gently by her shoulders to face him and then kissed her tenderly. “I don’t have a job to be at today,” he reminded her, excitement and eagerness building as he spoke. “No place to be ‘til tomorrow morning… we could spend all day and night on your recovery. Or just plain gluttony.”

Lorelei’s eyes glittered as her hands moved over his chest. “You would put yourself at my mercy?”

“I trust you,” he nodded. “With my life.”

Before she could speak, Alex to seized her by the shoulders and pushed her back onto the bed behind her. He advanced, stepping out of the pool of his clothes on the floor to grab hold of her pants.

The red demon grinned as he roughly stripped her from the waist down, not stopping to note the lace over her sex before he tugged it off. “What of your exhaustion?” she taunted. “Didn’t you want a shower?”

Alex pushed one of her legs apart from the other with his knee, resting it on the bed as he bent over her. She felt the head of his cock tease at her inner thighs, but his attention was on the rest of her body as his hands roamed. Elated at the look of possessive hunger in his eyes, she stretched and bent into his touch.

“We’ll get to the shower,” he said. He grabbed a fistful of her hair close to her scalp, tilting her head back. He’d gotten good at that, causing only excitement and no appreciable harm. His mouth came down on her neck as he added, “You can take over when I’m too weak to lead.”