Page 16 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
"Even though it's strange for finfolk to be this far inland, the troll bothers me more. We are a hundred miles from the Appalachians. Is that a misnomer?"
"No, it is not. I have never seen one in the city before."
"It's not like he could've taken a bus," I mumbled. "What was a troll doing here?"
"I am not sure, mi cielo, but the bodies are still in the alley and an investigator is on his way."
I sat up abruptly. "The police are coming? We need to hide the bodies!"
"Don't worry. This investigator is familiar with supernatural activity. He is a detective, but he's sympathetic to our cause."
I flopped back on the pillow, head pounding.
Rick scooped an arm under my shoulders, pulled one leg across his lap so I was straddling him, and tipped his head to expose his neck. "Come, mi cielo. Take of me."
His voice in my ear was as deep and soft as the velvet I'd been nestled in. Warm breath stroked my cheek. He adjusted the neck of his shirt to expose more skin. I nuzzled the smooth expanse over his artery. At the same time, his hand massaged behind my knee and began drifting up my outer thigh. When his hardened member grazed between my legs, even the fabric of my pants couldn't stop the pulse of need that jetted through me.
I bit down hard on the web of flesh between his neck and shoulder, his gasp an appetizer for the meal I was about to indulge in. The first drops spread across my tongue, salty and warm, enticing a deeper bite that proved prolific. I swallowed greedily, heat blossoming where he rubbed in just the right spot between my legs. I writhed in his lap. His fingers at the base of my skull massaged my neck, pulling slightly at the roots of my hair.
Rick's blood was a drug, building within me, coaxing me toward orgasm with every swallow. As I neared the brink, I had a vivid hallucination of a man's chest pressed up against my back, sandwiching me against Rick, and his hands sliding around my rib cage to roll my nipples between his fingers. That did it. I came so hard, only Rick's arms kept me from falling off his lap.
When I was capable of thought again, I sat up, feeling Rick's hands all over me. Looking down myself, Rick's hands were literally all over me! Or more accurately the hands of his two twins. One knelt by my side and one stood near my head.
"Holy crow! What the hell is going on?"
Rick cleared his throat and muttered a spell under his breath, sending the other two into oblivion. "It is the fae enchantment on this room. The magic picks up on your fantasies and provides, what you might call, virtual reality. They're not real and they can't hurt you, but the experience is very... intense. You can imagine why the Maison is so popular."
"Uh, yeah." I smoothed imaginary wrinkles from my shirt. "We are definitely coming back here," I mumbled under my breath.
A low rumble vibrated against me, Rick's laugh. Of course, he'd heard me. He had super hearing and eyesight. I stood and straightened my clothes again.
"Well, I guess it's no secret that I'd like to stay here and continue to test the room's charms, but I want to meet this investigator and see if he has any idea why a finfolk and troll would be willing to risk their lives to travel this far into the city."
Rick nodded his head and held open the door.
gh Night at the Office
"I sentence you to ten years in Monk's Hill cemetery." I pressed the tip of Nightshade's razor-sharp, bone blade into the vampire's neck, drawing the tiniest drop of blood. What once was a labored process was now something I could do as easily as breathing. Unlike sorting human souls, judging supernaturals only required the offender's own sacrifice, not mine. I watched his eyes grow wide before he poofed to the confines of the graveyard.
Ten years was a light sentence, but honestly, this time the victim asked for it. Literally.
"What have you done to him?" the brunette sorority girl screamed in my face, turning in circles as if I'd performed a magic trick with smoke and mirrors.
I pulled a tissue from the pocket of my long wool coat and mopped the blood from her neck. "Um, you must know he was a vampire. You were attacked. You're safe now."
"I know he was a vampire. Why do you think I come here?" She pointed at the door to Mill Wheel.
Stupid Twilight. These young girls actually wanted to be vamp fodder. "He could have killed you," I stated firmly.
She popped her hip out and placed her hand on it. "Or turned me," she said wistfully. She grinned like the thought warmed her soul.
I slapped my forehead in frustration.
Rick placed an arm around the girl's shoulders and turned her body to face him. Their eyes locked. "Vampires don't exist. You are going to collect your things and go straight home. Forget this ever happened."
Her face blanked for a moment. She smiled. "I've gotta go home. Nice to meet you." She disappeared through the door, leaving us alone in the alley.
"Nice," I said. Rick could channel the powers of the baddies we faced, which meant he could compel people, just like a vampire.
