Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 3

Izzy

I find Costello in his workshop at the end of town.

The big man is squeezed in under the hood of a car, twisting away at a piston or something.

He nods at me, “Get you a beer?”

He goes off to a little fridge at the corner of the workshop. He’s not much to look at in his greasy vest, the bulging triceps covered in tattoos. With his shaved head and thick neck, he is obviously not the sort of person anyone would want to mess with. He was my father’s best friend and after his death, became a kind of mentor to me. I knew he would know if my father had been ill.

He used to be a fellow Guard and bounty hunter. He quit some time ago, deciding to spend his days tinkering around with cars and trucks. He was the first person I wanted to see after my meeting with the vampire king.

“I need to ask you something,” I said after a few sips of beer.

“Go on.”

“Do you know anything about my father being sick, before he died?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Who told you that?” he asked, wiping his hands on an oily rag, considering his answer.

“Little birdie.”

“Does the birdie have fangs?” he asked and laughed.

I smiled and he corroborated what Lucca had told me. “He didn’t want you and your mother to spend his last days fussing over him. But, yeah, time was running out and that was why he wanted his last job to be a good one. A nice juicy payout for you guys once he was gone.”

“This Chakrat?”

Costello’s face tightened. “Piece of shit!” he spat onto the workshop floor. “I told him not to try and get him on his own. Too dangerous. Piece of filth has been around for centuries. And your dad, well, he wasn’t at his best anymore.”

“I was told someone on the Council might be protecting him, keeping him from being caught?”

Costello shrugged. “Dunno about that.”

I paused. “Do you think Chakrat was behind my father’s death?”

He shrugged

“There was some weird shit happening around the time he died. He’d gone off to talk to Lady Cat about this whole business… that was the last time I saw him.”

I sat up straight. “Lady Cat?”

Lady Catherine was the owner of a popular night club nearby. She was connected to all kinds of beings in our world and her club was a popular meeting place. “Your father said she was a friend,” Costello shrugged. “I never trusted her, but he said she was a good source.”

“Why did you never tell me he’d gone to see her?” I asked and Costello said he didn’t think it was important. I knew I had to go see her, though. If she had information on my father’s death, I had to know. I had no intention of looking into the vampire king’s council connection. I wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.

“You need to be careful,” Costello called after me.

“Lady C’s is a hangout for vampires and all sorts.”

I laughed. “I know!”

He shook his head and said he didn’t like it.

Lady C’s was in the middle of nowhere, between small towns where nothing ever happened. The club, though, frequently saw scenes of violence and as there were never any witnesses or camera footage, what happened there usually stayed there. It was not the kind of place where someone like me went unarmed.

Especially at night.

I tied away my hair, put a baseball cap and a big jacket on to camouflage my appearance somewhat and drove to the club, waiting outside until it was late enough to go in and look for the owner.

I saw her right away, a striking older woman with bright red hair. She was the familiar of a vampire who was sometimes seen at the club, one of those whom my dad said wasn’t as bad as the others. This did not mean that he thought of him as good, though. He didn’t trust any vampire.

I walked up to her and touched her arm. “Lady Cat?”

“Yes?” Up close, I could see that she had aged over the past five years.

“I was wondering if I could have a word?”

She looked at me and I could tell she didn’t recognize me.

“I’m Izzy, Bo’s daughter.”

She blinked and I could see the news rattled her. “Come with me,” she said, pulling my arm and directing me to a room behind the bar. Once we were inside, she closed the door behind me.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed at me. It was a private room rather than an office, with velvet chairs and sofas and mirrored tables. The lighting was low and rather sleazy, I could imagine what went on here.

“I wanted to ask you about the last time my father came to see you.”

“It was so long ago…” she said.

I cut her off. “Did he talk to you about Chakrat?”

She looked over her shoulder, quickly. “Don’t say his name!” she whispered.

“Why not? Is he here?”

Vampires had extremely keen hearing.

“No,” her voice dropped. “But he has friends all over.”

“Was my father here before he was killed?”

She nodded reluctantly. “I liked your father. He was a good man. I told him to stay away from him.”

“Chakrat?”

She shook her head but didn’t want to say anything else. I twisted her arm behind her back, painfully. “Tell me!” I insisted.

“Okay, okay!” I let her go and she mumbled “bitch” under her breath. I let it go.

“It was bigger than him, I told him to walk away but he wouldn’t. Couldn’t, I guess. Typical man,” she rolled her eyes. I didn’t like how she talked about my father. He wasn’t a typical man. In my eyes, he was a hero.

“Bigger than him?” I didn’t understand. Was Lucca right about the council being involved?

“The blood,” she whispered. “They call it the product? The bottles sold by the Syndicate? There were rumors that some of the vampires were getting high on particular brands.”

“Getting high? What do you mean?” I asked.

“If people who donated the blood were high at the time, the blood would contain the drug and this affected the vampires in similar ways as for the humans. Gave them not only a buzz, but even a feeling of being alive again. Very addictive. That is what I heard.”

“Sounds like someone could be making good money off it,” I said.

“You’d better believe it.”

“Who is behind it?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“If I wanted to get some of this blood around here? Who would I talk to?”

She looked at me. “Some clan I don’t know well. They call them the Owls, they have these big eyes,” she shivered. “But they don’t play by the rules.”

“Where can I find them?”

“You shouldn’t mess with them,” she warned me.

But I wouldn’t be deterred that easily.

For the first time in five years, I had some real leads about my father’s death. As I left the club, my thoughts were distracted, trying to process what Lady Cat had told me about the blood drug, Chakrat and the last time she’d seen my father. She’d confirmed that he had looked unwell.

I should have paid closer attention to my surroundings, especially in a place like that, but I was thinking about my father and how I hadn’t seen him a few weeks before his death. I wished I’d had more time with him.

By the time I heard the rush of air that meant something was flying towards me, it was almost too late. My instincts kicked in and I did a double flip without even thinking about it. A dark shadow slid past me. I barely had time to slip out my dagger and get ready. There was no light outside and I couldn’t see a thing. I heard it though, lurking in the shadows and knew I was at a disadvantage. The door opened and some people came out. Light spilled onto the parking lot as I felt the attack come towards me from the side. I was ready with my knife, slicing into the body just before the contact came. But two others were suddenly on top of me. One of them grabbed me by the throat, incapacitating me completely. I couldn’t breathe. Kicking feebly, I wished I had been paying more attention.

There was a flash of light and the hands fell away from my throat. There was screeching in the air and dull thuds as the bodies hit the ground. “Leave!” a command that cut through the night like lightning.

They shrunk away and disappeared into the night.

It was King Lucca, standing next to me. He was holding me up or I’d have been crumpled on the floor in a heap.

“Are you all right?”

I nodded, not wanting to speak. Where the hands had closed over my throat, I felt a searing pain.

“Close your eyes,” he said in a soothing voice. “I will get you some help.”

I felt darkness close in over me and I didn’t fight it. Even though I hated vampires, I had felt relief when I saw it was him, I knew I could trust him. It was a strange feeling but the moment I realized it was him, I had known that I would be okay. Clearly, I was delusional, under some insane spell.

That was the only way in which I could explain what happened afterwards too.

Because when I woke up, I was lying in a strange bed on soft sheets. I opened my eyes and saw King Lucca standing at the window. He noticed that I had woken up and came over to the bed.

“How are you feeling?” He sounded so solicitous, as if he really cared.

“Better. Where am I?” I managed to say.

“You’re safe.” He sat down on the bed next to me, touching my hand.

“What were you doing at that club? Didn’t you know how dangerous it was?”

“I did,” I admitted and shrugged. Talking was painful.

I was aware of his finger caressing my wrist. His touch did not feel cold at all, or perhaps the sensation he caused was warm.

“I thought I was too late,” he said in a low voice.

I looked at him, questioningly.

“The vampires that attacked you, the Owls?” he said. “Vicious, deadly”.”

“I’d never even heard of them until tonight,” I admitted.

Then, as it occurred to me, I asked, “Why were you there?”

The corner of his mouth twitched into a small smile. “I was making sure you were all right.”

“You were following me?!” I wanted to be outraged, but in truth, I wasn’t really. If he hadn’t been there, I would have died.

“Well, I had a feeling you might go after Chakrat.”

It was embarrassing to be that transparent.

“I’m glad you were there.”

He looked at me and I felt naked under his mesmerizing stare. I had never experienced anything like it, the magnetism of his eyes, the lust and the desire I saw there. I felt myself responding, becoming aware of my body under the sheets as it seemed to want to move towards him. This had never happened to me before. No man had ever had this effect on me. It had been easy to keep myself pure, unsullied, trained only on my mission and work.

But this was something else.

Faced with this incredible desire I felt myself losing control over my thoughts, my feelings, my self-control. I wanted him, I could feel it. He’d saved my life and I no longer feared him as I should have. Was this the reason why? He looked at me as if he wanted to know if I was thinking what he was, feeling what he was.

“Izzy,” he said, his voice soft, caressing me, seducing me.

“No,” I whispered, trying to command every ounce of resistance that I could. But there was no point, there was no way I could resist him. I wanted him the way I had never wanted anyone else. I closed my eyes and felt his hand slide up my arms and to my face. I opened my eyes and saw that he was right beside me, cupping my face. His eyes were an incredible color, the lightest blue, and seemed almost incandescent. When his lips touched mine, they were soft and gentle, kissing me with such delicious sweetness that I felt myself melting. I wanted more, more of him. My body seemed to catch fire, it was as if I had woken up, there was a stirring inside of me, between my legs. I felt myself moving towards him, my arms pulling him down on top of me.

“Izzy,” he murmured in my ear, his voice becoming music playing for me only.

I no longer cared if this was wrong, if I shouldn’t do it. All I knew was that I wanted to have sex with him. Now. I had never wanted anyone this much before. Our bodies locked together, a dance of skin against skin, my nipples hardening into tight pebbles soothed only by his cool tongue. His teeth, so sharp, sent shivers of desire through me as they touched the delicate skin.

“Please,” I begged him, moaning.

I couldn’t wait for him to enter me, to fuck me, to have me any which way he wanted me. I couldn’t pay attention to anything but that wonderful feeling, the fire that seemed to emanate from him and his magnificent cock, racing through my blood until I exploded with delight.