Things That Go Bump in the Night IV (21 page)

“If you insist.” Bo’s tone was stiff.

“I can’t insist; your clan does not recognize the Council,” Alexandre said.

Bo gave a slow nod. “I think I would like to sit down and discuss a few things with you.”

“Excellent. Who knows? We may salvage something good from this unfortunate situation.” Alexandre headed for the door. “I have to get going; the sun rises soon.

Charlene, I hope you feel better soon. Rik, I’ll be in touch.”

The tall vampire left with the wolf on his heels and Char couldn’t bring herself to tear her gaze from her lover’s. Her eyes stung and she whispered, “Now what?”

“That’s an excellent question.” Rik lowered the bedside rail and sat on the edge of the bed. She scooted over until he slid his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder. “We need to sit down and have a long discussion.”

“A very long one,” she agreed. “Can we get something to eat first? I’m starving.”

He chuckled. “I don’t know…the last time we had a meal together we almost killed each other.”

Her cheeks heated at the reminder of their erotic breakfast. Her grip on his waist tightened. “I think we can contain ourselves for a few hours.”

“I certainly hope so. I was in the cafeteria a few minutes ago and I saw some New York cheesecake and the cherry topping did remind me of you.”

124

About the author:

J.C. Wilder left the world of big business to carry on conversations with the people who live in her mind, fictional characters that is. In her past she has worked as a software tester, traveled with an alternative rock band and currently volunteers for her local police department as a photographer. She lives in Central Ohio with 6,000 books and an impressive collection of dust bunnies.

The award-winning author also writes as Dominique Adair.

J.C. Wilder welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, Ohio 44224.

Also by J.C. Wilder:

In Moonlight anthology

Ellora’s Cavemen: Tales from the Temple II anthology

Writing as Dominique Adair:

Blood Law

Last Kiss

Party Favors anthology

Tied With a Bow anthology

TWOFOLD DESIRES

Ashleigh Raine

Non-Dedication

This story is not in any way dedicated to our best friend Carrie. Nope. Not at all dedicated to her. No way. No how. We wouldn’t dedicate this to her. Nuh-uh. Not Carrie. Not the lovable, charismatic, vibrant, wonderful, loud, fan-damn-tastic, electric, hyper, bodacious, awesome, spectacular, intrepid, ballsy, funky-spunky, musical, lyrical, outer-spacial woman we know and love.

So Carrie, now that this story has NOT been dedicated to you, whatcha gonna do about it?

Twofold Desires

Can’t close early.

Want to close early.

For the two hundredth time in the last five minutes, Jill Evans looked at her wristwatch. Had the hands even moved? She glanced up at the wall clock and sighed.

Foiled again. Closing time wasn’t for another long, drawn out, painfully frustrating fifteen minutes. Ugh. She fought the temptation to flip the sign on the door to closed.

Who was going to shop for flowers at 7:45 at night a few days before Halloween?

No, she couldn’t do it. What if a young girl wanted to buy a flower for her first love? Or what if a gentleman needed a corsage for his lovely lady? Or better yet, what if a single handsome stranger wanted a solitary red rose to bring to the party tonight?

Oh crap!

Tossing her pliers back onto the workbench, Jill whipped around the counter to her computer. She’d never printed up her ticket for tonight’s
Singles Haunt
at
Silver Twilight
.

She typed in her webmail address. While waiting for the site to load through her incredibly slow connection, she skipped over to the sink and attempted to clean some of the orange and black flower dye from under her fingernails.

Three days until Halloween and everyone seemed to be getting in the spirit. Just today, Jill had sprayed a batch of gladiolus black and orange and carved a few pumpkins. But tonight’s bash was the highlight of her holiday. She’d always hoped that one day a man would walk through the door of
Jill’s Bloomers
and sweep her off her feet. Yet in the five years since she’d opened, the only sweeping going on involved her broom. The men who came in weren’t looking for a woman, they were looking for flowers for the woman they already had. Although that was great for business, it wasn’t great for her love life, or even her go-out-on-a-date-once-every-blue-moon life.

So it was time to take the bull by the horns. Time to go out and get noticed, to live a little dangerously and maybe go a little wild.

And hopefully find someone to go a little wild with her in the process.

The party tonight incorporated all of her newest resolutions. Less than a year ago,
Silver Twilight
had been a strip club. Now it was under new management, offering live music and dancing every night. It was
the
place in Talisman Bay to go for fun.

She cast a glance over her shoulder as she scrubbed. It looked like her e-ticket had arrived. Shutting off the water, she grabbed a towel and did the happy dance back to her computer, letting out a giddy giggle.

Before clicking on the
Silver Twilight
confirmation and e-ticket, she skimmed her incoming messages and noticed one of her old college friends had sent her a Halloween 129

Ashleigh Raine

funny. Her grin widened. Charlene always sent the best zingers. Jill had learned to never drink while reading Charlene’s emails, to avoid spewing soda all over the monitor. After clicking the appropriate button to print her e-ticket, Jill opened the joke email.

She didn’t even get to read the first line before her printer jammed.

“No, no, no. Darn it.” At least her stupid printer decided to eat something of hers rather than a receipt for a client. But she needed the printout in order to get in. That darn printer would not ruin her plans to finally have some fun!

Jill yanked on the jammed sheet of paper, extracting it as though opening a Chinese fan, fold by fold. “All right, you silly old thing. Are you going to play nice now?”

Offering up a prayer to the god of crappy computers, she returned to the e-ticket email, clicked print again and watched. “Thank heavens.” Her printer appeared to be cooperating.

“Okay. Now then, what good joke did Charlene send me?” She opened the email.

“Top Ten Things to Avoid on Halloween”

Never—

Interrupting yet again, the printer started to eat the page, making a horrendous squeaking sound. “But you were being so good!”

Oh well. There wasn’t enough time to deal with it anymore. She grabbed a knife from her worktable, shut off the printer from hell and slashed the page free. Luckily, the e-ticket and confirmation number were on the top half.

She tucked the ticket into her purse and for the third time, clicked to open Charlene’s email.

Her computer froze.

Jill stuck her tongue out at her computer as she powered down. Okay, obviously she wasn’t supposed to read that email tonight. Too bad. It would’ve been fun to see how many of those so-called rules she could have broken.

She glanced at the wall clock. Only five minutes remaining. She swallowed her grin, reminding herself to stay professional.

Screw it! Closing five minutes early was hardly cause for anyone to be upset.

Hurrying about, she pulled the display buckets from the front sidewalk and began tucking all the necessary delicate blooms into the refrigerators.

The bell on the door jingled merrily behind her. Fudge! She hadn’t locked it yet.

Turning to the latecomer, she offered up her best retail smile. Hopefully, the fun at
Silver Twilight
wouldn’t run out before she got there.

130

Twofold Desires

* * * * *

By the time Jill had escaped work, showered, dressed up, discovered her nylons had holes instead of feet, rushed to the corner store, put on her new pair while driving, and finally arrived at
Silver Twilight
, the party was in full swing. People were talking, mingling, making a connection. The music was loud, and servers weaved through the crowd handling drink orders. It was the definition of organized chaos.

Devils, pirates and warriors shared the dance floor with vixens, French maids and a few dominatrices. Most everyone was dressed in dark shades, the most common colors vamp red and soulless black.

Her sparkly white fairy costume with tiny silver gossamer wings made her stick out like a sore thumb.

No, she chastised herself, not like a sore thumb. She was unique and original. And so out of place she suddenly wondered what the heck she was doing there.

Butterflies fluttered nervously in her stomach. As much as she’d been anticipating tonight, looking around at the room full of costumed people trying to make a love connection, she realized she had no idea what to do next. Should she just jump in and start dancing? Maybe buy a drink, then walk around hoping someone would talk to her? Paste a smile on her face, hoping it made her look friendly and approachable rather than three sheets to the wind?

She shook her head and sighed. No wonder she was still single. She had no clue about this kind of stuff.

An overweight vampire, blood smeared on both of his chins, winked at her as he sauntered into the bathroom. She stifled her giggle. Okay, maybe she wouldn’t be a complete failure with the men tonight. But should she wait around for another vampire? A pirate maybe? What about one of the knights in rusty armor?

Wait a minute. Why should she wait around for some clown, or cowboy, or whatever that thing in the corner was to come to her? Tonight she was a fairy. And as a fairy, there was no reason she couldn’t flit around, grant wishes, flirt profusely and have a darn good time in the process.

Jill took a deep breath and thrust her way into the crowd. She expected to be bounced back out, rejected with a big red “vetoed” stamp on her forehead, but instead the swarm swallowed her up, welcoming her into their midst.

The rest of her worry evaporated as she noticed a familiar face on the dance floor.

Jake, who co-owned
Rare and Unusual Imports
, was dancing and laughing, surrounded by a group of women all vying to be the one he took home that night. His eyes met hers and he grinned, gesturing for her to join them.

Not one to turn down an invitation to dance, she smiled and weaved her way toward him, already beginning to move to the music.

131

Ashleigh Raine

* * * * *

Arden snarled inwardly as he scanned the festive crowd. With the way the women were dressed, it was more like a flashers convention than a costume party. Everywhere he looked, breasts spilled out the top of too-tight spandex. Disgusting. Appreciating beautiful women was one thing, but watching them use their bodies to try to hook some poor fool for a night was almost painful. Was there not a decent woman in the whole place?

An all too familiar voice mentally interrupted his internal tirade.
You’re growling
again. No wonder you’re still sitting by yourself.

Arden cursed the telepathic, empathic and downright annoying connection he shared with Leo.
Get out of my head, Leo.

If you’re not even going to try, then why are we here?

Through the crowd, Leo shot Arden the usual scowl.

I thought there’d be potential here, not a roomful of women only interested in a quick lay in
the back alley.

Oh ye of little faith. You see my following. There’s tons of potential.

Arden scanned the group of women surrounding Leo, then turned his back on all of them.
Big deal. We’re not here just to get laid.

Leo’s annoyance permeated Arden’s consciousness.
Dammit. This was your idea in the
first place. “We’re running out of time,” you said. “We can’t give up yet,” you said. “We can
still find the one.” All of this bullshit and now you’re backing out?

Arden downed the rest of his beer and gestured for the bartender to hand him another.
This wasn’t what I had in mind.

You know what, Arden, if you’re going to be a dick and give up, maybe you should just pick
yourself out a vamp, maid, dominatrix or whatever and at least get laid one last
—Leo’s spiel came to an abrupt halt.

Wondering what had caused the interruption, Arden glanced back toward Leo, but his gaze was drawn to someone else. A woman, dressed in sparkling white and silver, weaved through the crowd as Leo continued.
Or how about a fairy? Now, she definitely has
potential.

For the first time that night, hope stirred inside of Arden. The beautiful fairy glowed as she moved, unknowingly portraying a bright innocence that made her outshine every other woman in the room. Shoulder-length brown hair framed a heart-shaped face. Wide brown eyes seemed to watch everything at once, unabashedly soaking in the world around her. She was pure and sweet and exactly what he was looking for.

A moment of guilt slashed through him. Did she deserve to be pulled into their cursed existence?

Did they have a choice?

Leo interrupted his troubled thoughts.
If you’re not interested…

132

Twofold Desires

I am
,
Arden fairly growled.

Good
,
Leo replied smugly.
Because it looks like our fairy queen is thirsty.

133

Ashleigh Raine

Jill spied an empty barstool and her aching feet turned longingly in that direction.

After putting in a full day of standing at work, then dancing nonstop for forty-five minutes, she was ready for the sit, drink and chat-with-whoever-was-nearby part of tonight’s festivities.

Breaking from the dance floor, she made her way along a row of small tables, aiming for the short set of stairs leading to the bar. Jill passed table after table of flirting couples, heads pressed close so as not to miss a word the other said. She even saw the double-chinned vampire from earlier, cuddled up with a latex-clad goddess of equally dynamic proportions. She grinned. Love—or at least lust—was in the air tonight.